Memories in the Dreams
by Animus et Anima
Summary: Brennan wakes up in a strange place with no memory of who she is. The only clue of her past comes while she is asleep. Can she find out who she is? And why isn't she in Washington anyway? Post DitP, there are spoilers. You've been warned. B&B!
1. Sore

**I do not own Bones. I do not own any of these characters, they are all property of Hart Hanson, Kathy Reichs, and FOX Network.**

The first sense to return to her was feeling. She was laying on something that felt familiar. Not in the sense she had laid on it before, but something very similar to it. After a moment, she realized it was a cot. Heat surrounded her like a blanket that could not be removed, though the only thing covering her was her clothes. Her head was pounding as though she had been hit in the head with a baseball bat. But it wasn't just her head, it was everything. Her right arm lay across her abdomen; but when she tried to move it, excruciating pain radiated up her arm. Somehow she knew it was broken just from the amount of stinging her brain registered. She let out a moan that was barely audible to her own ears. Either she was partially deaf in addition to her injuries, or she had barely made a sound. She wasn't sure which. She tried to sit up, but her ribs felt like they were bruised, as well.

Slowly, she opened her eyes. She was in a small shack. The ceiling was a beige color with a rough texture. She tried to move her head to the left, but she let out another whimper. The wall was the same beige color as the ceiling. There was a bed, it looked like a double from where she laid, with a light brown, wooden headboard with a red and yellow design on the sheets. There was a bedside table that was the same color as the headboard, with a simple lamp sitting on top of it. Next to the lamp was a clock that read 3:25 and there was a book next to the lamp; she estimated it to be about one hundred and fifty pages. She wanted to see the book's title, so against her better judgment, she placed her weight on her left arm and pushed up.

Her arm was sore, but the pain was manageable. She caught the title, before letting her arm give out. She book was one on the history of Navajo tribe. Facts about the Native American tribes began floating through her head. She wasn't sure how she knew them, because she knew she was too pale to be a Navajo.

Suddenly, she heard a door shut on the other side of the house, and the floor creak under the person. Her hearing was fine, now. She wasn't sure if she should let the person know she was awake. Before she could make a decision, however, a woman came into the doorway. She was pretty by many standards, and clearly had Native American ancestry, most likely Navajo.

"You're awake," she said clearly startled. There was no noticeable accent to her voice.

"Yes," she said, speaking for the first time since she woke up. Her voice was a very raspy and she suddenly wished she had some water.

"How are you feeling?"

"I'm sore. My head hurts and I believe that I have a broken arm and bruised ribs. And I'm very thirsty, too."

"I'll go get you some water. Do you want something for the pain, too?"

"That would be appreciated." The mystery woman left, most likely towards the kitchen. When she returned, she had a bottle of water and medicine for the aches. "Here you go. This should help."

"Thank you."

"I'm Dani, by the way. Dani Webber."

"I'm-" she started, but froze. What was her name? A panic slowly fell over her. She had yet to think about her identity as she had more concerned with her physical health.

"Do you remember your name?" Dani asked. She could only shake her head. "I'm not very surprised. I found on the side of the road, next to a car that was burned to a crisp. It looked like you were in a wreck. You car was totaled, and you were unconscious with the rest of your injuries. I looked for a phone or ID in the car, but I think someone found you before I did. Your wallet and checkbook were gone and your suitcase had been looked through. I brought your things, too, but there's no name, address, or phone number in them. I'm sorry for invading you privacy; I just thought it would help."

"I was robbed?" Dani simply nodded. "Why am I not at a hospital?" she asked.

"We're about seven minutes from where I found you; the nearest decent hospital is a few hours away. I thought it would be easier for you to recover here, then to risk driving five hours with you propped up. I didn't know how bad your injuries were. If you want, I can take you to a hospital."

The woman on the cot quickly evaluated the pros and cons of going to the hospital before replying, "No, I think your original assumption was a good one."

"You should know that you've been out for about a week."

"A week?" That was far too long for anyone to just go missing. Who was looking for her? Friends? Family? Were parents still alive? Did she have any siblings? Cousins? What about children? Husband? If not, what about a boyfriend? Or was she alone in her life? Someone did know that she was missing. Right? Suddenly she had an overwhelming fear that no one would miss her. Would she be lost and forgotten like the thousands, if not millions, before her?

After a few moments of silence, Dani said, "I know this is a lot to process. Do you want me to leave you alone?"

"No. I think company would be beneficial right now." Dani finally moved into the room and went to sit on the bed.

They sat there for a moment, neither sure what to say. Finally, the woman on the cot spoke. "I don't remember anything. Everything before when I woke up is completely blank. I don't know my name or anyone who might be looking for me."

"There's no name that seems really familiar to you? First or last name?" She closed her eyes and concentrated on any name that seemed familiar. She finally just started spouting off names mentally. _Tina, John, Emily, David, Josh, Jody, Vikki, Clint, Bones, Robert- Wait. Bones is not a name. Bones are the dense, porous, calcified tissue which makes up the skeletal system of animals with vertebrae. How do I get such things confused? My brain must still be feeling the affect of the crash. Names. Thomas, Olivia, Alex, Robert, Elliot, Jennifer, Tony, Roxie. She opened her eyes. The last two names sounded familiar. _

"Tony and Roxie. I'm not sure about them, but together they sound familiar."

"So, which is your name? Toni or Roxie?" The woman closed her eyes, yet again. She tried seeing which one she responded more to. When she thought of the name Tony, however, she felt as though she were referring to a man.

"I believe my name is Roxie," she said finally.

"Well, Roxie, I'll help you for as long as I can," Dani promised. Roxie nodded. Her eyelids were beginning to get heavy. Before she knew it, she was peacefully asleep.

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**So, what do you guys think? Anyone intrigued? Should I continue?**


	2. Life vs Death and Warm Chocolate Eyes

**Happy New Year's! Hope everyone celebrated bringing 2011 in.**

**Even with the New Year, I don't own anything. It belongs to everyone I mentioned in the first author's note. **

**By the way, there are spoilers from "Two Bodies in the Lab" in this chapter.**

**Anyway, here's the next chapter.**

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_**Her hands were forced above her head; she could feel rope digging into her wrist. She looks up and sees the rope was fastened to a metal hook. She tried to take a deep breath, but there was something stopping her. A bandana was in her mouth, most likely to muffle her screams. Two large dogs were barking and growling at her from behind. She knew the dog was starving, and, as a result, would be more than willing to eat her alive. Fear was overwhelming her. She watched the man who put her there. He had strong build, but eyes that looked upon her with no sympathy. He did not feel regret for his actions. She had fought against him before he had been able to trap her, but he had a gun and a Swiss knife. He told her that she wouldn't suffer. That he wasn't that cruel. She begged to differ. She could feel the tears well up in her eyes as she watched him prepare to kill her. **_

_**He finally raised a gun, ready to kill her. She knew it was the end of her life, and let out a cry. Maybe someone would hear her and come to help. Highly improbable, but probability doesn't come into play in final moments. But before the killer was set, a shot rang out, hitting her capture in the arm. The heroic shooter limped towards her, and instead of the fear that had just consumed her, she felt comforted. He was bruised, and clearly injured. His short messy hair stuck straight up, and when she looked into his warm chocolate brown eyes, she saw nothing but relief. She could see more bruising, however, under his black jacket which was only zipped up about half the way. His well defined chest showed through, and a golden chain was visible to her eyes. The man with the warm eyes removed the bandana from her mouth and she began to breathe heavily, before he said, "It's okay." **_

_**He then pulled her arms off the chain, even though it put him in pain. She let her arms fall around his neck and he grabbed her around the waist. "It's okay. I'm right here. It's all over. Shh… I' right here, alright? It's all over," he told her as she breathed heavily into his neck, begging the tears not to fall.**_

_**She finally pulled back. "How did you get out of the hospital?"**_

"_**Hodgins gave me a ride here. Maybe you can give me a ride back though, huh?" he half joked. She did nothing but bury her head in his shoulder. She would do about anything for him in that moment. His embrace was as warm as his eyes, and just as comforting. She knew that as long as she was there, she would be safe.**_

She sat up on her cot, only to wince in pain. She had temporarily forgotten about her bruises. The clock read 8:54 in the morning. She knew she had slept longer than her body was used to, but she was also recuperating from whatever happened to make her lose her memory. Her dream! She tried to grasp as much of it as possible before it disappeared. There were two large dogs, a man with a knife and a gun who wanted to kill her, and another man. The second man was the only thing she could clearly visualize from her dream. She could remember everything about him. His warm eyes and well constructed body, his soothing words after he rescued her, and his masculine scent. She remembered hearing a name, but couldn't remember anything about it. Was it his? Hers? A mutual friend? Was it even someone she knew?

"Roxie, are you okay?" Dani asked, walking into the room. "You look really pale. And you're sweating." She quickly wiped her brow with the back of her hand, and felt the moisture cling to her clammy hands.

"I'm fine," she responded, despite the physical evidence. "I think I just had a memory, though…"

"Really? What was it?" Dani's voice was filled with excitement as she sat at the end of the cot.

"I can't clearly remember it now, but I believe I was in a warehouse, where I was about to die. I'm not sure how. I remember large, black dogs that hadn't been fed in several days, and a man with a knife and a gun. He kept telling me that I wasn't going to suffer like the others, and that he was going to kill me before mutilating my body. But he was shot by another man. He rescued me…"

"Who were the men?"

She opened her mouth to answer, but couldn't think of their names. So, instead she responded, "I don't know. But everything is clear about the man who saved me. I most likely had prolonged contact with him."

"That's not surprising if he saved you. Hey, if we can figure out his name, then we can probably find out where you're from." The woman without a known past simply nodded. "Are you still sore?"

"A little, but that's to be expected considering my injuries."

"I'll bring you some ibuprofen." Dani returned moments later with water and medicine. After the pills were taken, Dani said, "I've been thinking. My brother, Ben, is the sheriff. He's due to get back from a pretty big trial in Sante Fe sometime next week. He might be able to find out who you are. He can run your name through the Missing Person's Database, or at least you description."

"Really?"

"I'm sure he'd be willing to do it now if he were in town. Let's just hope you aren't a fugitive." This caused both women to smile. The woman with the mystery past may not remember much, but she highly doubted she had any connection to the crime world besides almost being murdered.

"I would greatly appreciate that." The women sat there in a comfortable silence for a few minutes. The woman currently known as Roxie began to think about who might be missing her. Was this mystery man from her dream? What about other friends? Did she have any family that would notice her absence? Was it a common enough occurrence for her to go missing for weeks at a time that no one would bother reporting it? Would people move on in their lives whether she was there? _That's a ludicrous thought. Life continues on whether one person is alive or dead. It would be illogical for everyone's life to simply freeze until you were found,_ her brain told her. _People's lives do not revolve around you, unless you are a mother caring for her child. And Dani never mentioned any evidence of a child in your car nor do you have any marks of a C-section to indicate otherwise. How much your absence affects people depends on how close you were to them, but their lives will never stop because you aren't there._ The woman sighed, knowing rationally all of this was true. So, how much were people's lives impacted?

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**So, what do you guys think?**


	3. Triple Memories

**Sorry it took me so long to update! I meant to post this yesterday. So as an apology this chapter is a lot longer than the first two.**

**Normal disclaimers. If you don't them by now, then go look at the previous chapters.**

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The days past quickly, Dani and her guest spending the days not leaving the shack; in fact, the guest never got off her cot, much to her dismay. Dani was able to find different books for the woman to read, most of them included information about a collection of cultures, generally Native American. Of course, it took her about two days to go through all of these books. Most of the information was familiar to her, though she wouldn't admit it to Dani. Dani often mentioned that she should try to relax; maybe even take a nap since she was recovering, both physically and her past. But she grew tired of that rather quickly.

So far, no new information about her current life or the man with warm eyes had floated through her mind. But did not mean she hadn't remembered several things over the past few days. The second memory she remembered was her being enclosed in a dark place that she couldn't escape from.

_**She was alone and afraid. Her body was shaking violently, and the usually strong female was letting tears fall at a rapid rate. It wasn't that she was claustrophobic, but being trapped for hours at a time in this small of an area was unnerving. **_

_**It was a rough material under her. Actually, it surrounded her. And the space was in was too small for her; she shouldn't have been able to fit in the enclosed area, at all, but had been forced in. Her legs were aching to be stretched, but there was no room for her to move. Her throat felt as though she had not had anything to drink for a while, and it had been even longer since she had eaten. She had barely gotten home from school and begun her chores before she had… She must have been here for a several hours. **_

_**When they had first dragged her she had been screaming, "I'm sorry! It was an accident, I swear!" It was a challenge trying to keep the tears and terror out of her voice. They had warned her of the punishment, but she didn't think they would seriously do it. It was a barbaric concept to punish a teenager- anyone- like that. But they did, and were planning on leaving her in here for God knows how long. **_

_**She had cried out for help for a while, but decided that her captures weren't going to take pity on her so soon. She spent the next several hours listening for any sign of someone coming to release her, and eventually fell into a restless sleep. When she woke, she began to push against the top of her container to see if she was free from this torturous imprisonment yet. The ceiling would move a little, but it never broke open. After what seemed like hours of pushing against her roof with no luck, she surrendered. **_

_**She began praying to God, but here prayers were not answered. No one came to her rescue as she pleaded. As each moment passed, her already feeble faith began to dwindle away. What type of god would let people who have already lost everything suffer even more and give them no way to escape the torture?**_

"_**Please. I didn't mean to drop the dish! I'll pay for it! I'll do anything, but please let me out." She tried yelling, again. She was pretty sure a day had passed, since the little light she had available had already gone dark and was now returning. She continued to scream similar messages, hoping her captures would show her mercy and let her go. She wasn't sure if she could afford to miss any school, since she was new to the area and had started late in the semester. "It was just a dish; I'll work to replace it. It won't ever happen again! I swear! Please, let me out!" But eventually her voice became too raw, and her shouts for help became whimpers.**_

"_**Please," she quietly cried. "I just want out."**_

She had woken up with fear and anxiety after that; what type of horrible childhood did she have, where she was locked away against her will? Had no one been worried about her then? No one had noticed that she was missing? She began to wonder if someone would be missing her now. Of course, the brown-eyed man came to mind. He must be looking for her; he had already saved her once. He meant something to her, (he had been a major component of her first dream) so it would be logical for her to mean something to him.

The night after that brought back a much more relaxing memory.

_**She was in a field, and by the looks of the few trees around it was late fall. Looking around, she saw a couple, mid-thirties, sitting and talking about ten meters away. They were sitting on a blanket, removing food from a picnic basket, and apparently having a very intense conversation. She instinctively knew they were fighting and that it was not a good sign. She wanted to hear what they were saying, but was too far away. She did however hear someone approaching her from behind. **_

"_**Marco," he said, and she jumped and turned around. A college age boy in a leather jacket was standing in front of her now, with a football in his hand.**_

"_**Polo," she said, feeling a smile stretch across her face. She felt comfortable with this guy. **_

"_**What are you looking at?"**_

"_**Mom and Dad. They look like they're fighting."**_

"_**Mom and Dad never fight."**_

"_**I know," she said quietly. **_

"_**You're imagining things. They're probably talking about Thanksgiving or something."**_

"_**I don't know. Dad looks really unhappy."**_

"_**It's probably nothing. Relax."**_

_**It was then their mother turned and looked up at them. "Are you guys going to eat or just stand there all day?" she called out. The brother and sister ran towards them. Her mom was wearing a dolphin belt that both she and her daughter adored. Both the teenagers sat down, her brother dropping the football.**_

"_**Drinks are in the car," their father informed them.**_

"_**I'll go get them," the daughter said. **_

"_**No, we'll go," the mother said, as she and the father stood up. **_

"_**We don't want any beers to go missing," their father said, clearly in the direction of his son.**_

"_**Come on, Dad. I'm nineteen."**_

"_**You're not legally allowed to drink. Just wait two more years," the girl said.**_

"_**Have you ever broken a rule?" her brother retorted, somewhat sarcastically.**_

_**Both parents rolled their eyes at the sibling banter before going to get the cooler of drinks. Once they were out of earshot, the brother turned to her. "They seem to be fine to me." **_

"_**I guess."**_

"_**You over analyze, you know that?"**_

"_**Shut up!" the sister laughed, as she pushed her brother who rolled over at her not so rough shove. **_

She had a smile when she woke up. She knew this was her family; she wondered if her brother or parents were looking for her. Of course, she couldn't help but wonder where they were when she was in the dark place, because the family she had at the picnic with would not have left her there. She knew that the brother who protected her and her loving parents wouldn't have done that. She knew these things, but didn't know how. But she at least knew she had a family; not that she knew any names. But for them not to have come to help her, they would probably have to be dead. Maybe it was best she didn't remember that memory.

Her fourth memory had occurred when she was taking a nap, and it had included the man that she had concluded she was in love with several days prior.

_**They were in a nice apartment. The warm eyed man was looking through a collection of CDs. **_

"_**Wow, a world of music… There's a shock…Tibetan throat singers. Rock on, Bones," he added the last part with sarcasm. **_

"_**That's mostly for work," she weakly defended, knowing that it was still unusual music for anyone to own. **_

"_**Kanye West, Captain Power… Uh, oh whoa, alright. Look at this man, lots of jazz. Wow I think all that free form stuff can be a little unpredictable for you."**_

"_**No, I love it! The artist has to live within a set tonal structure and trust his own instincts to find his way out of an infinite maze of musical possibilities and the great ones do." She then noticed a smile that made her knees feel slightly weak, though she didn't let it show to him. "What?"**_

"_**Oh nothing, I just… I just never expected that you would. You know…"**_

"_**That I would love music? Well, I don't usually get to talk about it but since you brought it up I thought…" she trailed off. Maybe that music was fairly out of date. She didn't really keep up with that sort of thing. It didn't usually bother her, but if he was going to judge her for it, maybe she should just stay quiet. There was a reason she talk about pop culture much.**_

"_**No, hey. I didn't mean to make you feel self conscious or…" he began to apologize, but his attention was quickly diverted. "Whoa, what's this? Ha." **_

"_**What is it?"**_

"_**Nice."**_

_**Suddenly a familiar tune began to play and he began to bob his head. She wasn't sure what to do; it was one of her guilt pleasure songs.**_

"_**Uh, how did that get there?" she asked, slightly worried. If he had questioned her taste in jazz, what would he think about this?**_

"_**Oh, please, everyone loves Foreigner. Hot Blooded? Talk about guilty pleasures. Check it baby." He began to start playing air guitar, and she couldn't help but smile at his juvenile behavior. She slowly began to get into the rhythm as he began to lip sync with the music and he started to sing. She could no longer control the urge to join him and threw her leg into the air and started dancing and singing with him. It had been a while since she had let loose like that, and she enjoyed it. Unfortunately, an ringing sound went off like a telephone in her dream.**_

And as she awoke, she heard a similar ring echoing through Dani's home.

"Hey, Ben…Everything's doing okay. But I've got a favor to ask when you get back-… Why will it be a few more days?... One of them who helped you find me?... And no one's heard from her?... Why are you involved if she lives in Washington?... And the FBI is sending people to come look for her? She must be really important to them… Angie's coming down to look for her, too? I'll see if she wants to crash here. Me and Roxie and take the living room, if it's okay with her… Roxie. The woman I found on the side of the road…I told you about her last week… Well, she can't remember much. That was what I was going to ask you to help us with. I thought maybe you could find something out from the missing person database… Angela can? She's an artist, Ben… Really? Guess it won't hurt to ask her. When will she be here, anyway?...Three days is enough time. My house is actually fairly clean right now… Okay, thanks, Ben… Bye."

Apparently Dani was worried the phone woke her up, since she came to check on her. "Did the phone wake you up?"

"No," she lied. She decided to change the subject. "Who was on the phone?"

"Ben was checking in. He's going to be another few days. A big author disappeared in the state, and they want everyone following leads. FBI is even sending people down from other places. But my friend is coming down from Washington DC to look for her. She and her husband called Ben, but since he won't be in town he wanted to know if I had room. I haven't seen Angie in ages. Her boyfriend died while visiting a few years ago, and she hasn't been back since."

"Why is she coming down here?"

"She's good friends with the missing author."

"Ah…"

"Speaking of missing people, any helpful dreams?"

She sat there for a moment trying to remember anything from her latest dream. She had shared all of her memories with Dani so far, though no useful information had come through. "My job has something to do with Tibetan throat singers. And I like jazz music and the music group, Foreigner. Though, I highly doubt that either of those will help determined who I really am." She decided to leave out the man with the brown eyes. Clearly they were good friends, which gave her a comfortable feeling. She knew that she was safe when he was around, no matter what.

"Any information is better than none at all."

"So far all we know is that I have almost murdered, have a brown eyed friend who saved my life, I have at some point had a brother, mother, and father. And I have an unusual job related to Tibet in some way."

"And the names Roxie and Tony mean something to you."

"None of that is useful in a missing person database, except the names."

"Well, I need to go clean. Angie and her husband will be here in a few days."

"I can help!" she quickly sat up (and regretted the speed at which she did).

"No. You're still recuperating from your accident."

"I don't like just sitting here."

"Maybe tomorrow, Roxie. I'll go get you some more ibuprofen." Dani left the room with that, leaving a restless woman on the cot.

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**What do you guys think? Love any comments you want to give. :)**


	4. Sensation

**Okay, thank you all so much for the reviews! You guys are great, did you know that? They made me really excited to write, so you got the next chapter. :)**

******I do own the plot line, but I don't own most of the dreams. Basically, if they appear in the show, it** belongs to Bones' producers, writers, etc. and Kathy Reichs who originally created Brennan.

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_**The conscious her wasn't sure how she got there, but she was standing outside of a bar that looked rather shady. The rain came pouring out of the sky like there was tomorrow. She knew the yellow cab on the street was waiting for her, but she was not moving towards it in the slightest. Instead, she was standing there looking into the same soulful, chocolate brown eyes that had saved her. There was a new look to them tonight. It wasn't one of worry like when he found her in the warehouse. His eyes were darker, more lustful. His hair was also neatly combed; she quickly decided that his unkempt hair was more attractive. Her eyes however were not really looking at his hair, instead moving from his eyes to his lips and back. Her lips were curved into a smile, and all she could truly think about was his lips on her.**_

"_**What I wanted to confess," he started, "was that, see, I have a gambling problem. But I'm dealing with it."**_

"_**Why did you feel like you had to tell me that?" Her eyes flickered towards his lips again, as she was fighting the urge to cut off whatever he was going to say by placing her lips on his. **_

"_**I dunno… I just feel, like, this is going somewhere." His head began to move closer to hers. **_

_**She brought hers towards him before playfully, "Why did you feel like this was going somewhere?"**_

"_**I dunno… I just feel like I'm going to kiss you-" and with the phrase being uttered, she placed her lips on his. The kiss was instantly passionate. Tongue contact occurred almost immediately, and caused an unfamiliar feeling to set upon her. It was the most amazing and satisfying sensation that she had ever felt. One of her arms went around his waist and the other to his chest, and his hands moved to her waist. Once her hand was on his left pectoral muscle she pushed away, though her instinct was telling her to let this continue. But she also knew that she was not thinking clearly.**_

_**His lips tried to follow hers but she pulled out of his lips' reach. She wasn't sure how long they had been kissing but it definitely had sparked something in her. Something she believed to be related to alcohol; though it was a very unusual feeling for alcohol. But that was the only logical explanation of the tingling sensation that was slowly taking over her body.**_

"_**Wow…" was all he said as she dashed towards the taxi. **_

_**When she was a couple feet from the cab, she turned around with a goofy grin on her face. "We are not spending the night together," she informed him before moving towards the car. **_

"_**Of course, we aren't," he replied in a sarcastic tone. "Why not?"**_

"_**Tequila." She began to slide into cab. He immediately began to run towards the cab.**_

"_**Hey, whoa, whoa! Hold the cab! Hold the cab! Hey!" he said as he knocked on the window of the taxi. She rolled down the window. "So, you're afraid when I look at you in the morning, I'll have regrets?"**_

_**She simply smiled, before answering, "That would never happen." **_

_**And the taxi began to drive off. She rolled up the window, then turned around and waved goodbye to him. It was a heartbreaking sight, seeing him standing in the middle of the street while he watched her drive away in the rain. She kept eye contact with him until the taxi turned the corner. When she could no longer see him, she leaned back into the seat. The feeling that had set upon her during the kiss had yet to fade. She still felt the warmth over her. The alcohol was affecting her like never before, but she didn't mind this affect tequila had over her. It was possibly the best feeling she had felt in her adult life.**_

She slowly opened her eyes. It was a pleasant memory to wake up to, especially compared to the first morning when she had been frightened for her life. Somehow, the feeling that she remembered from the dream kiss was still running through her veins. It was definitely a sensation she didn't want to lose. It also gave her some relief that at some point in time there had been someone who cared about her. The same man had appeared in sixty percent of her 'dream- memories,' so it was a sensible idea that this man meant a lot to her. She also had this strange feeling in her stomach right after the dreams; one that she knew came with being infatuated by someone. Though, it seemed like so much more in this case.

She rolled over on the cot, and relieved to find that she was no longer in as much pain as when she had woken up four days ago. She saw it was six- fifty in the morning and that Dani was still fast asleep. She considered trying to go back to sleep for a few minutes, but instinctually knew that was not likely to happen. She laid there for several minutes debating her options. Dani had yet to allow her to get off the cot, afraid she would hurt herself. But the woman's legs had been yearning to stretch for several days, and she hated having to rely on Dani to do things. So, she quietly stood up. Her ribs did not react well to the motion, but once she was standing, she was fine.

She walked out of the bedroom, and wandered around the small house. She immediately entered the kitchen from the bedroom. It had a stove, oven, refrigerator, microwave, coffee maker, and a small, ash table with two matching chairs. The cabinets were comparable to the table, and the floor was white title. At least until she turned right and entered the den. The carpet was a beige color, while the couch was a dark red. The fifty-six centimeter television was set across from it with a VCR/ DVD player sitting on top of it. In between the television and couch sat a small, rectangular coffee table. On the table sat a pile of magazines and books with mail covering the little space left. A lamp was to the left of the couch. The decorations throughout the house were very similar to those found in the bedroom. It was clear that Dani tried to incorporate her tribe's culture and artwork with a classic American West style.

She returned to the kitchen, and began to brew some coffee for herself and Dani. It wasn't very difficult for her to find the ground coffee; nor was it hard to read the instructions on how to make the beverage. She was not very hungry, so as the machine prepared the drink, she went into the den and began looking at the different books and magazines. None of them particularly interested her. They were mostly artistic magazines and books that Dani had already giver her to read. However, beside the table was a copy of the newspaper from sometime in the past few days.

She scanned the headlines for any interesting stories. It talked about politics, which she could not truly remember anything about, a few robberies, comics, and the high school basketball team's most recent game. The bestselling author that Dani's friend knew also made the headlines, too. Though it was in the middle of the national section of the paper, and was only about a sixteenth of the page without any pictures.

Before she could start reading the article, however, she heard Dani begin to move around in her room.

"Roxie?" Dani asked into the house.

"Yes?"

Dani came walking out into the kitchen, still rubbing sleep from her eyes. "You're awake. And walking around. How are you feeling?"

"Much better than I have been. My ribs aren't as inflamed as they have been and my arm seems to be improving."

"And your head?"

"It doesn't hurt. And my memories are returning to me slowly."

"Another one? What was it?"

"It was nothing very important."

"It's one of the first memories to resurface, so it's obviously important to some part of you."

"It was just the man that rescued me from the warehouse and I had a fairly intimate moment."

"You had a sex memory?" Dani asked with a voice somewhere between shock and laughter.

"No. Just a kiss." Though it felt much more personal than a simple first kiss.

Dani smiled. "He definitely means something to you."

"I concur," she smiled. She could see his smile, and felt the same arousal from when she first woke up, just not as extreme.

"Roxie, do you love this guy?"

Panic began to overtake her body at the mention on the emotion. _Love? He is definitely a friend if I value his opinion on music. And he cares about me enough to have looked for me once. But if I was to strictly go on my last memory, I have romantic feelings. Rationally, it is probable that I'm in some form of a relationship with him. He could be my husband for all I know- though marriage is simply an archaic ritual that asserts a man's ownership over his wife. Husband or not, I believe these emotions for him that I feel maybe categorized as love._ So, she responded to Dani's question with a simple statement, "Yes, I believe so."

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**Okay, so I hope that Brennan's not too OOC... If you think so, let me know and I'll explain my logic. Also, let me know what you think of the chapter or story in general. :)**


	5. Girlfriend in the Diner

**I do not own Bones. It belongs to its producers and FOX network. Let's face it, if anyone on this site owned the show, then B&B would be together by now...

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**

_**She was sitting in a dinner, across from the man with chocolate colored eyes. His hair was messy, the way she liked it. His eyes were not as warm they had been in the past, but he still looked to her as like a she was a good friend. But something had changed between them, and it was not in her favor.**_

"_**It seems like we were never away from each other, doesn't it?" she asked.**_

"_**Yeah. Are you okay with that?" he asked, with a hint of concern in his voice.**_

"_**Of course, why?"**_

"_**Well, because seven months ago you said you didn't want to be surrounded by crime and death and sadness."**_

"_**Well, I needed time to rationally assess the best use of my considerable skills. Factoring in the strong and mutually beneficial relationship, I concluded that I would be most useful solving crimes." She knew she was trying not to let it slip that she loved him. But he had always been **_

"_**Right, so you're happy to be working together."**_

"_**That's what I just said," she replied, glad that he understood it that way. She was truly happy that she was around him once again.**_

"_**Right, me too."**_

"_**So, do you miss her?" she asked suddenly. She knew that while they were gone he had met someone, but she had not returned back with him. For some reason it gave her comfort to know that only one in ten long distance relationships worked, meaning that most likely his relationship would not last now that there was half a world between them.**_

"_**Yeah, of course, I do." His reaction seemed either hesitant or forced; she wasn't sure which. She used to be able to read him like an open book, but seven months apart .**_

"_**Well, if there's anything I can do…" She wasn't sure what she was offering, but she wanted him to be happy; even if it hurt her. **_

"_**You know I didn't leave Hannah. I had to come back here because of Parker," he told her defensively. Parker, his son. She had a warm feeling running through her body. It was a maternal feeling for the child she bore no relation to. She cared about the boy, and missed him. It had been over eight months since she had seen his son.**_

"_**I know," she assured him. But apparently it didn't register in his mind.**_

"_**I couldn't ask her to leave anymore than she could ask me to stay."**_

"_**I-I'm sorry, I brought it up." She knew he was saying that he wanted his relationship to work with Hannah, and it broke her heart. But she put on a stoic face for him. She didn't think it was fair to burden him with her irrational emotions.**_

_**He opened his mouth to say something, but something out the window suddenly caught his attention. "Oh my God." A smile appeared on his face as he stood up from the table as he ran towards the door as a blonde woman in her early thirties walked in. "Hannah! Hey! What are you doing here?" His girlfriend was here. Why was she here? She was supposed to be on the other side of the world.**_

"_**We can talk in a minute," she said hastily. And before anything else could be said, they were kissing. And the other woman's heart was crushed more and more with each passing moment. After a few second, she pulled away, still holding on to his blue suit jacket. "I put a request in to be assigned to the Washington Press Core."**_

"_**That's something you said you'd never do." A smile never left his face.**_

"_**That was before I realized how much I hated waking up alone," she answered before pulling him in for another kiss. This one a little more passionate than the first. The other woman felt jealousy swell inside of her unlike any other envy she had felt before. She was aware that she had messed up, but to have to have it pointed out to her like this was emotionally challenging, even for her. But she refused to let him know that. She had no right to him by her own rash decision.**_

"_**Hello," the dreamer said, catching the new woman off guard and stopping the hurtful kiss. **_

She woke up, feeling her heart crush into thousands of pieces and a cascade of tears rolling down her face. It took her a moment to figure out why she was crying. Then the thought came to her like a flash of light. He didn't love her. He had a girlfriend that was not her. She had been so sure that she loved him and that he returned her feelings. That was what all of the evidence from her returning memory had pointed to. Apparently, she had misinterpreted her dreams, though; because she just watched him kiss another woman. And she knew it was the most recent memory she had seen (because he looked slightly older), which hurt even more. She began to wonder if she'd even notice her disappearance or if he was too busy with his new girlfriend, Hannah.

She couldn't help but let a quiet, sick laugh escape her lips. The first name she could remember from her past was the name of the girlfriend of the man she was in love with.

She looked at the time to see it was around seven o'clock. Dani wouldn't be up for another thirty minutes at least, and she felt the need to clear her mind. She went over to her suitcase and began to rummage through for clothes. She had recently taking whatever clothes were on top, but yesterday she had taken the last shirt from the pile of clothes. So she began to dig through her luggage. Her hand stopped when it hit something plastic. She reached for it and felt a slightly rougher plastic. Grabbing the two objects with one hand she brought them out to see what they were. A pig and a blue action figure. _Jasper and Brainy_, her brain filled her in. She knew that these things meant a lot to her; but the origins of them were completely lost to her for now, though. She placed them by her suitcase and found a shirt and pants. Once she was dressed she put the two special action figures in her pocket, and went out to brew some coffee before she went for a walk. So seven minutes later, she walked out of the shack for the first time in almost two weeks with a cup of coffee in her good hand. There wasn't much around, but that suited her fine. It allowed her to get lost in her mind.

She began to wonder, never letting the small home leave her sight. _Maybe I'm out here in the middle of nowhere because I needed a break from seeing the happy couple_, she pondered, somewhat bitterly. _But as much as it hurts to know he doesn't reciprocate my feelings for him, I still want to be around him. If only as friends. We're the center; we have to hold… whatever that means. I wish I had a context to put that into, because it sounds so familiar. Damn amnesia. Focus! _

_If he's happier with this Hannah person, then I should let them explore their relationship. He's been through a lot in his life. I don't know what, but I have this intestinal feeling that he has. Maybe helping Dani's friends find their missing woman will help me remember more. If nothing else, it will help me forget about Hannah and… I still can't remember his name. _

_Maybe I'm not really in love. I mean, what is love other than an increase of dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine in the brain? Maybe remembering him first just gave me the illusion of love. That would make sense, rationally. Plus, I have done fine as a single woman. And I have a family who is probably looking for me, plus the friends whose memories have been overshadowed by thoughts of him. Yes, he and Hannah can be happy together and I'll be happy in my own life. That way, everyone is happy._

Satisfied with her decision to live a life without him involved romantically, she returned to the shack and began fixing toast for hers and Dani's breakfast. Dani woke up, completely unaware of the emotional turmoil that her friend had gone through that moment. Dani asked about any new memories as they began to have breakfast.

"Just another face, and rather unhelpful name," she answered, taking a sip of her coffee.

"Name? You remembered someone's name? Whose?" She could see Dani's excitement as though it was written across her face.

"Hannah. She's his girlfriend."

"Whose girlfriend?" Dani asked. With a small look, Dani quickly understood. "The guy who saved you?"

"Yes. Apparently, they are very happy."

"I'm sorry, Roxie. I know-"

Her voice started out strong, but quickly weaken as she said, "I would be very appreciative if we could not talk about this."

Dani nodded, understanding that the woman sitting across from her was going to deal with the heartbreak by herself.

That day, the two women straightened the small home, since the following day Dani's friend, Angela, and her husband would be coming while looked for their friend soon.

"Dani, when will they be here tomorrow?" the woman asked as she stacked the magazines.

"About ten or eleven tomorrow morning. They want to drop off their luggage and say before going to look for their friend. They've been travelling across the state, and they want to stop here as they search the area for her."

"I would like to help them find her." It was a brash choice, but it seemed like the correct thing to do. It would help bring closure to these people. Even if she didn't get that for a while, then at least someone could.

Dani stopped what she was doing and looked at her friend. "Are you sure you're up for it?"

"I've been off the cot for a couple of days, and I've yet to have any problems."

"You were also unconscious for a week before that and have a broken arm. And you laid on the cot for three days."

"Only because you wouldn't let me get up. Plus, I can take care of myself." She suddenly had a déjà vu feeling. Had they had this conversation before?

"I don't know, Roxie. I just don't think it's a good idea."

"You can't really stop me. I'm in charge of my own life, and have the right to do what I want with it."

Dani shook her head. "Fine."

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**A/N: So, what do you think? Next chapter will be posted Monday!**


	6. Trouble in the Gardens

******Thank you all who reviewed. **As promised, it is Monday and here is the next chapter. 

**I should also mention that I will never write anything that doesn't have either straight out B&B or undertones to it.**

**As always, I own nothing. It all belongs to the producers.**

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That night the woman without a known past could not fall asleep. She tossed and turned until about one-thirty for some reason unknown to her. First it was that her arm itched and then she couldn't find a comfortable position. And though the thoughts of the man and Hannah invaded her thoughts, she pushed them away as much as possible. She began to contemplate staying up all night, and then drinking a lot of coffee the following day, but finally felt her eyelids get heavy.

_**It was lunch time, she knew that, but she was not hungry. However, everyone was telling her to leave work for at least an hour. Normally, she would have told them she was fine, but chose to humor them today. She decided to go walking, knowing it would help her to clear her head. The past month had been tough on her since her partner and her relationship had been strained. Why had she acted so irrationally? She knew he was in a committed relationship with Hannah, but the Eames case had made her go slightly- what was the word Micah used?- nuts. **_

_**She was wondering through the United States Botanical Gardens, let her mind wander without limitations; unless it dwelled too long on her partner, then she would try to focus on the beauty surrounding her, which she had to do more than she cared to admit. She was walking aimlessly, when a familiar silhouette caught her attention. It was her partner sitting on the bench. Knowing he came her about as often as she did during his lunch break (which was rather rare), so she began to approach him to see why he was there.**_

_**But someone got to him before she did. The man that she didn't know was a little shorter than her partner. He had dark hair that looked as though it was beginning to thin out a little, a rectangular face, and slightly large ears.**_

"_**Special Agent Booth, thanks for meeting me now."**_

"_**No problem, Mr. Lidner. And call me Booth."**_

"_**Paul," he said as he sat down next to Booth. The woman stopped and listened to their conversation. She didn't want to interrupt them, but she did want to say hi to Booth. But she was curious about what business her partner had with this man. **_

_**Paul reached into his pocket and pulled out a small box. When he opened the box, she could see a diamond sparkle in the sun, even from her distance. "What do you think?"**_

"_**It's a great ring. She'll love it."**_

"_**Good," Paul sounded relieved. The eavesdropper wondered what the ring was for. "Let's just hope she says yes to the question."**_

"_**Yeah, I know from experience that it sucks when the girl says 'no'. But I don't think that will be the case this time. We'll get a wedding. " And then it hit her. A ring, a wedding, and Booth. Booth was going to propose. And there's only one person he'd propose to. Hannah. Her metaphorical heart was already fragile when it came to Booth from her admission during the Eames case and the rejection that went with it, so this news made it shattered into thousands of pieces. But there was at least some time for her to change his mind. Booth wouldn't ask Hannah to marry him without letting her know in advance. Booth was loyal like that. And since he had not mentioned it to her, he probably wasn't going to ask for another few days, if not longer.**_

_**She had just managed to convince herself of this and calmed down, when she heard the other man, Paul, say, "We'll hopefully know by the end of tomorrow, won't we?" **_

_**End of tomorrow. If her heart wasn't already crushed, then that final sentence made it. Booth had shared the fact he was going to propose to Hannah with Paul, a man he had to just tell not to call him 'special agent', but not to her, someone who he had claimed to be his best friend for several years. She knew that she couldn't handle this conversation anymore, which was confirmed by the irrational tears that began to slowly roll down her face. She rushed out of the gardens and drove back to the lab, begging herself not to let more tears fall. The only two things that could possible comfort her were at work. Her best friend and century old skeletons.**_

She woke up and felt more heart broken then when she remembered he had a girlfriend. Booth was going to propose to Hannah. She felt her cheeks, and noticed they were wet. She went to the bathroom and wiped away the tears. She knew why she had come to the desert now. She didn't want to be there when he proposed to his girlfriend; and it only made it worse that he wasn't even going to warn her. He knew how she felt about him, (the Eames case ran through her head like a narrative) but yet he was just going to let her know when he let the rest of the squints know! How could he do this to her? She had let him into every part of her life; and yet, he didn't trust her enough to tell her before he asked Hannah to marry him. Where was the logic in that? And why was she so emotional? Had she always been like this? She didn't like if she had. She had already decided to let him have his own social life, since he clearly didn't want one with her. So why was so upset about this?

After about fifteen minutes, she had finally calmed down and felt drained, both physically and emotionally. She walked into Dani's bedroom and checked the time. The clock read four-forty-seven in the morning. So, she quietly slipped back into bed and let her exhausted body drift back into the past, uncertain if she was ready to see what it held.

_**She was in an open office with reddish tan walls and white, illuminated shelves and a window wall, giving a view of a laboratory. There were old artifacts surrounding her, in addition to the nice computer on the desk in the room. She was sitting on the couch with a cup of coffee in front of her, trying to relax. The last tear had fallen before she entered the lab. **_

_**She began to read through her mail, knowing Hannah nor Booth would be sending her paper mail and it would take her mind off of what she had heard. It also had been about a month since she went through her work mail. Most of them were questions about her book that her editor sent to her, though a majority of that had been emailed to her, as well. About halfway through the stack was a letter from a colleague, asking if she wanted to help excavate a new sight in the Colorado Desert. There were several bodies that had been uncovered during the excavation. Unfortunately, the dig had started a couple days before she opened the invite. Normally she would have ignored such a request. But this time was different; it would give a good reason for her not to be around when Booth asked Hannah to marry him. She dialed the number given and spoke to the lead archeologist, Dr. Harry Roberts. He said that though she would be a little late, they would always welcome her expertise. She thanked him; of course, as she did so, her best friend entered the room.**_

"_**New case?" the artist guessed.**_

"_**No, I'm going to go on a dig for a couple of weeks," she answered, as if it was nothing. The artist stopped and gave her friend an 'are-you-serious' look.**_

"_**You just got back from Indonesia like five months ago."**_

"_**Yes, and now I'm going on another dig."**_

"_**Does Cam know?"**_

"_**No, I just agreed to it." Why would her boss object? Yes, Cam would probably not be happy, but she would probably understand the situation. Or she could just not give Cam a chance to question her decision.**_

_**The artist sighed. "Sweetie, you can't decide to leave randomly. What if we get a case?"**_

"_**Then Clark can go with Booth." She felt some regret and pain when she mentioned his name, but tried not to let it show.**_

"_**T**__**his has something to do with Booth?" Apparently it had flickered on her face.**_

"_**No, Ange." She knew that she couldn't lie, but sincerely hoped that Angela wouldn't notice this time.**_

"_**You're lying." **_

_**She sighed. She wasn't sure why she even tried. She could never get anything past Angela, especially when it came to matters of sex or romance. "It's nothing, Angela!" she insisted.**_

"_**If it was nothing, then you wouldn't be trying to get away from him again."**_

"_**I should go talk to Cam about taking the rest of the day off," she said, trying to change to subject.**_

_**It didn't work. "Sweetie, whatever he did-"**_

_**Those four words set her off. All he had done was decide he wanted to propose to his girlfriend. It was her who had the problem. "He did exactly what he said he would. He moved on. Now if, you'll excuse me…"**_

_**But Angela grabbed her arm. "Back up. When did he say he had to move on?"**_

_**She knew that she had to tell Angela, at this point. "When he asked me to give us a chance."**_

_**The artist's grip dropped. "What? When did **_**that**_** happen?"**_

"_**About six weeks before I left for the Maluku Project." Shock spread over Angela's face. Whatever she was expecting, it had not been that.**_

"_**Sweetie, why didn't you tell me?"**_

"_**Because I didn't want to prolong its discussion. If I had told you, then you would have told Hodgins and Cam; and one or both would have talked to Booth about it. I didn't think that was fair to Booth."**_

"_**Well, you clearly need to talk about it now."**_

"_**No. It was my decision, and he did what he said he would."**_

"_**Maybe if he knew how you felt, now-"**_

_**She stopped Angela before the artist could rant about how their lives would be better if she and her partner were a couple. She didn't want to hear it right now. "He does."**_

"_**Sweetie, he's perceptive when comes to anything but you. And then he needs things spelled out."**_

_**She sighed. She knew Angela wouldn't let her leave until she was either in shock or had found a solution on how to keep her from going on the dig. The first option was more favorable in her mind. "I already told him, Ange. During Eames case."**_

"_**What did he say?" Angela's excitement was clear, but very unnecessary in this case.**_

"_**He told me Hannah wasn't a consolation prize; that he loved her. I lost my moment with him. And he's shown me over the past few months that he won't always be there for me and I just need to accept it and move on."**_

"_**Sweetie…"Angela said sympathetically. **_

"_**And if he wants to be with Hannah, I can't stand in their way. He's already risked his career for me more times than I can count. He's taken a bullet for me, before! I can't ask him to do all that for me if he has a wife and son to go home to. I won't."**_

_**Angela stared blankly at her for a minute; and she took advantage of the moment and left her office. **_

"_**I can take care of myself, Angela," she told her friend as she walked out, leaving her cell on her desk with no intensions of getting before she left for Colorado the next day.**_

She woke up for the second time, and immediately noticed that sunlight shown through the window. She propped herself up and saw that it was ten- forty-five and Dani wasn't in her bed. She heard a knock at the front door (probably what woke her up) and then some voices from the other room. It only took a moment for her to remember that Dani's friend, Angela, and her husband were coming today.

Angela! She had a friend named Angela who was married to a Hodgins! And a boss named Cam, and worked with someone named Clark! And then there was her partner, Booth, who was going to propose to his girlfriend, Hannah. The last one brought her mood back down from ecstatic to mediocre.

She listened to the conversation in the other room as she got ready.

"How far along are you, Angie?"

"About five months." That voice sounded way too much like the memory she had of her friend Angela. Then again, memories could be recalled incorrectly. The chance of it being the same Angela was about very slim.

"Really? You look great!"

"So do you! I can't believe it's been over five years."

"Me either… How have you been? I haven't seen you since…Kirk." Suddenly an image of a skull in her hands appeared in the eavesdropper's mind. But she shook it away.

"You know, it wasn't your fault, Dani. And I'm just thankful you're alive. You almost didn't make it."

"You found me."

"Hey, where do you want these?" a new voice entered the women's conversation. It was definitely masculine and very familiar.

"Um, I'd tell you in the back, but Roxie's still asleep."

"Roxie?" both voices asked.

"Something I should know, Dani?" Angela asked.

"I found her on the side of the road a couple of weeks ago. She's got a broken arm and a couple of bruised ribs, and amnesia. She's been getting her memories back as dreams."

"We could see what's in the Missing Person Database," the man suggested.

"We were going to see if Ben could when he got back into town."

"What's her last name? I have access to the FBI's database on my laptop."

"She doesn't know. She had trouble remembering her first name. She couldn't remember Roxie at first. "

"What did she think it was?" the man asked.

"Either Roxie or Toni. She said Roxie sounded her like more like her, though. So, that's what I've been calling her."

"Those names sound familiar," the man said.

"Bren and Booth used them during the Vegas case, Jack."

The woman stopped preparing for the day at those words. Booth was the man from her dreams. Angela was her best friend from her memories. But that would make her the missing author they were searching for. Was she Bren?

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**So, what do you guys think? Let me know!**


	7. Three Squints Reunion!

**So, a couple people have been curious about why there hasn't been anything about what Booth's been doing to find Brennan. This story is Brennan's POV, so you only know as much as she knows.**

**I do not own Bones, it belongs to the producers and FOX. I'm only borrowing the characters and their past.**

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She finally had a true identity. One that was not guessed, but could be proven with documents and photo identifications. She was this author the FBI was looking for. The one that they had sent agents from different states to come search for. Plus, she had at least two friends who had come from the other side of the country to find her. And now they were sitting outside of the room. It felt as though a burden was lifted, but that by no means implied that she was burden-free.

Bren's attention was drawn back out to the den when she heard Dani say, "I should go check on Roxie, actually. She hasn't slept in this late since she woke up."

"Go ahead."

Knowing she could no longer hide in the bedroom, Bren decided to step out into the kitchen. She was surprised to see the back of Angela and Hodgins' head facing her. Memories of the two began to run through her head. Angela and her meeting at an art exhibit, Angela taking her to a club, her friend begging her to help with her missing- later found dead- boyfriend, the artist talking to her about Booth, Angela asking her to be her Maid of Honor, Angela telling her that she was pregnant, Hodgins and her hitting Zack with a baseball bat, she and Hodgins being trapped underground in her car, Hodgins announcing that Angela and he had gotten married, and Hodgins giving her the poisonous creature manual for the Maluku Islands. Seven years of memory floated through her head, and she suddenly felt a little dizzy. She reached for the wall to steady herself.

Dani moving towards her. She knew the moment Dani said something to her, Angela and Hodgins would turn and see her. For some irrational reason, she was nervous for when they did.

"Hey, are you okay, Roxie?" Dani asked.

"Dizzy," Bren mumbled, trying not to be heard by her friends several yards away. She watched Angela and Hodgins' posture straighten, anyway, though.

"Do you wanna sit?"

She shook her head.

" Okay… Well, you have great timing," Dani told her. "I was just coming to check on you. This is my friend, Angela, and her husband, Jack."

"I know," she said, as the couple stood up. "And I believe I remember my real name now. I remembered a lot. Especially when I saw them."

Bren watched as her best friend turned around, and a mixture of shock and relief washed over her face. And Hodgins' face matched his wife's. Dani was oblivious to this however.

"Angela, Jack, this is…" she trialed off.

"Brennan!" Angela finally said snapping out of her shock induced trance and rushing over to her and engulfed her in a hug; Hodgins was only a few steps behind her.

"Angela, I need to breath." The artist's grip around her friend was cutting off the oxygen supplied to her lungs.

"Sorry, Sweetie. We've been worried about you! Have you been here the entire time?"

"I believe so. Dani's been extremely kind over the past couple of weeks," Brennan answered pulling back a little from the artist. Her head was still pounding, and this much excitement was not helping it.

"Dr. B, do you realize how many people are searching for you right now?" Hodgins asked, as he gave her a friendly hug.

"I know they've called in the sheriffs from the state, and that FBI agents are coming from other states. Booth's work, I assume?"

Angela nodded as Hodgins answered, "He's called in every favor he has. He's been going nuts dragging everyone he can to New Mexico and Colorado."

"Why New Mexico?" All eyes flew to Brennan.

"Bren, you're in New Mexico," Angela replied, concern filling her voice.

"I thought I was going to Colorado for a dig."

"You booked a ticket into New Mexico," Angela informed her.

"You're car was facing north when I found you. You must have been driving the rest of the way," Dani surmised. "I didn't even think about telling you which state you were in."

"That would make sense, especially since the excavation is near the Colorado boarder. If there was a plane in New Mexico that arrived earlier, then I probably would have taken it." She was beginning to see how she arrived here, and the knowledge brought her some comfort.

"Who's Booth?" Dani asked.

"Bren's partner. He works for the FBI."

"Is that the guy you're in love with?" Dani asked for clarification. Angela and Hodgins both froze and turned to stare at Brennan. Their faces both somewhat astonished.

"No. Well, yes. But still no. The man you are thinking of, Dani, is Booth. But I'm not in love with him. My hormones-"

"She actually said she loved him?" Hodgins cut her off.

Dani looked towards Brennan before answering, "Yeah."

"Wow. I mean, we all knew it. But for you to actually say it."

"I'm not in love with Booth! My hormones-"

"Dr. B, relax. Everyone already knows you're in love."

"Not everyone knows it," Brennan reminded the group bitterly, though it was apparently lost on Hodgins.

"All of the interns know. Hell, Zack, your first assistant, knows and he's been locked up for the past three years. I think even Max knows."

"Jack," Angela said somewhat harsh. Apparently that was all it took to stop the entomologist from ranting more. Though, Brennan's attention was more focused on the last name he mentioned.

"Max?" Angela and Hodgins exchanged a concerned look.

"Your dad. Sweetie, what do you remember about your family?"

"I remembered a brother, mother, and father. But I thought they all died. They… weren't there when I need them." She didn't know if her friends knew about her being locked away in the dark place with no one to come to her aid. And if they didn't now was not the time to tell them.

"Your dad showed up a few years ago. You guys are actually on good terms. He wanted to come help find you, but Booth didn't think it was a great idea for him to be around so much law enforcement."

"Why?" The married couple swapped another look of concern. "Do I want to know?"

"No, you really don't."

"I trust your advice," Brennan told her friend.

"Okay, this is still sinking in for me," Dani cut in. She pointed towards Brennan and asked, "You're the missing author that everyone's been searching for? And you just happened to remember last night? The night before your friends come?"

"Yes."

"Maybe you're subconscious was trying to let you know before we attacked you," Angela told her friend, only partially joking.

"That sounds a lot like psychology, Ange, which is a soft science." All three squints smiled.

"Some things don't ever change," Angela laughed. And with her friend's words, Brennan knew that she would be able to survive Booth and Hannah's marriage, as long as her friends were by her.

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**Well, now Angela and Hodgins found her! What do you think?**


	8. Telephone Conversations Part I

**Hey, thank you everyone who reviewed! You guys are I'm sorry this chapter took me a little longer than usual to upload.**

**I don't own anything, by the way. It belongs to Bones' producers and FOX.**

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It had been hours since Brennan had woken up with two more recovered memories, only to find that her unknown past had found her. The day was spent with Angela and Hodgins reminding her of certain events, and the nostalgia floating over like a calm river. By six fifteen, she had recalled a rather large portion of her adulthood past, and several childhood ones, as well.

Dani had listened to the stories, and learned about Brennan's past as the anthropologist did. As the clock approached six-thirty, the host finally spoke up. "Well, I wasn't really planning on having everyone here for two meals, so I have to go grab some stuff from the store. Think you can survive without me?"

"Yeah, we'll be fine, Dani. Jack and I can keep an eye on Bren."

Brennan scoffed. "I can take care of myself, Ange."

"You realize that was the last thing you said to me before you dropped off the face of the planet for two weeks, right, Sweetie?"

"I didn't drop off the face of the planet. That would involve-" she stopped at her friend's amused expressions. "You didn't mean that literally, did you?"

"No. Just the fact you disappeared." Brennan bit her lower lip out of embarrassment.

"Great, I'll be back in a bit." Dani smiled, moving towards the door to leave.

The three squints looked back and forth at each other for a minute. Hodgins was the first to break the silence. "You know, we never called Booth to tell him we found you."

Brennan suddenly became nervous. She had yet to think about what she would say to Booth. She hadn't talked to him since she had seen him discussing the ring with the other man. Should she ask what Hannah's reaction was? Should she pretend that she knew nothing about it? What was she supposed to say if he asked about why she decided to go on a last minute dig? She hadn't even told Angela the whole truth yet.

Somehow, Angela seemed to sense her friend's anxiety. "Bren? You alright?"

"Yes. My memories are coming back to me. If this pattern is to how, then when I return to DC, more memories will reemerge." Angela sent her a suspicious look, and Brennan knew that she had to come clean. "I'm worried about talking to Booth."

"You talk to him like twenty times a day, Dr. B. Relax," Hodgins reminded her.

Angela's gaze didn't change, however.

"There's another reason you left," the artist voiced.

A nod. Then a tense moment of silence.

Again, Hodgins broke the tension. "This is going to be a female moment, isn't it?"

"I think so, Jack."

"Right, then, I'll go outside." Hodgins stood up, but Brennan's words stopped him.

"I consider you a friend, Dr. Hodgins. And you're going to find out soon enough anyway."

"Sweetie, what are you talking about?"

"Booth's going to propose to Hannah." Angela's eyes shot open and Hodgins fell back onto the couch.

"What?" Hodgins asked, dumbstruck.

"Booth told you that? After you tell him you want a relationship with him, he tells you that he's going to propose to his girlfriend?" Angela was somewhere between rage and shock.

"Whoa, you told him what?" Hodgins asked, but the women were oblivious to his questioning.

"No," Brennan answered simultaneously with Hodgins.

"Then why do you think that he's going to propose?" Angela questioned her friend.

"I heard him talking about a ring and wedding to another man. I assume that it was the jeweler or another agent."

"Did you talk to Booth about it?"

Brennan shook her head.

"Then there's a chance he's not going to propose."

"He said that they'd know if there would be a wedding by the next night." Brennan let a small unhappy sigh out.

"Well, _that_ didn't happen," Hodgins said.

"What?"

"What Jack means is that Booth hasn't popped the question. He's been freaking out about you disappearing since we got the calling saying you didn't show up at the dig site. I'm not even sure that he's talked to Hannah."

"Angela, that's a ridiculous notion. He loves her. He told me those exact words."

Hodgins and Angela both struggled to find comforting words (Hodgins more than his wife, since he was unaware of when Brennan had even told Booth that she loved him). However, the tension was broken with Angela's phone.

She answered it on speakerphone after seeing the caller ID. "Hello?"

"Hey, Angela," a familiar voice rang over the phone. Brennan suddenly could see her boss and friend in front of her. There was a fair amount of noise, like when someone is driving. "I was calling to find out if you had had any leads."

"You could say that. I take it if you're calling us, then Booth's search has turned up nothing."

"Don't know. He's not answering his cell phone- again. We need to find Dr. Brennan soon, otherwise we might lose Booth too."

"You don't think he'd do anything stupid like stop working with us, do you?"

"Hodgins? Am I on speakerphone?"

"Yeah."

"Okay. Well, hey Hodgins. And it's a possibility; but I'm more worried about him falling back into gambling. I know you didn't really know him when he was gambling, but he was either betting or at work. It was his way of coping with what he did as a sniper. If we don't find Dr. Brennan, he might fall back into it, trying to distract himself." Brennan suddenly felt guilt wash over her. Booth had struggled with his gambling problem since she had known him; but he had always controlled it. If there was even a chance that her disappearance would cause him to start up enough, she had to make sure he knew she was okay. Cam's voice brought her back into reality. "Anyone else with you, two?"

"I'm here, Cam." There was suddenly clamor like the phone dropping, and a couple of car horns blaring.

Finally after a minute, Cam picked up the phone again. "Dr. Brennan? Is that you?"

"Yes. Were you expecting someone else?"

"Just not you. You're alive! And with Angela and Hodgins. Are you okay?"

"Yes. I'm still recovering my memories, though."

"You have amnesia. Um, okay. I was not expecting that, either." Cam was clearly shocked by her discovery.

"Most of my memories from the past eight years or so are back. I should be able to continue working when I return."

"You can take off as much time as you need. Your job will be waiting for you," her boss assured her.

"And Sweets is going to want to do a work up on you, first," Angela told Brennan.

"He did one for Booth after his brain surgery. Looks like it's your turn, now, Dr. B." Booth's brain surgery had come up several hours before, and Brennan had remembered some story she wrote while she waited for him to wake up.

"Speaking of Booth, I'm surprised he's not right there."

A silence radiated over the phone.

"He doesn't know yet, does he?" Cam asked in her cop voice.

"Bren doesn't want to talk to him."

"You don't want to talk to Booth?" Cam asked in disbelief. "Why?"

"I don't feel comfortable talking to him at the moment." She knew she was going to talk to him soon, but she thought it would be best alone. If she told them all, then at least Angela would try to be in the room.

"Does this have something to do with why you came into my office to say you were leaving for a dig and then left before I could ask you for an explanation?"

"Yes." Brennan hoped she wouldn't press the matter. But she did.

"Then I'd like to know what's got my forensic anthropologist running away again." It was clear to everyone that Cam was going get an answer one way or another.

When Brennan didn't answer, Angela did. "She thinks he's going to propose to Hannah soon, without telling any of us."

"He's not going to propose to Hannah," Cam said confidently.

"Why not?"

"He doesn't love her. And he hasn't asked any of us for advice."

"I saw the ring, Cam. And he told me he loved her," her voice was fairly serious.

There was an annoyed sigh over the phone. "He actually said 'I love Hannah'?"

"Yes. On several occasions he has told me directly or implied something to that effect." She answered with as much indifference as possible.

"And this was when you told him you loved him, right?" Angela asked in clarification.

"I never said I loved him. But yes, it was the night I told him I made a mistake he told me. Though he has mentioned it since he returned." Angela nodded, while Hodgins' brow furrowed.

"What did you make a mistake about, Dr. Brennan?" Cam asked from Washington.

"About six weeks before I left for the Maluku Project, Booth asked me to give 'us' a chance, and I told him I couldn't."

"Booth told you he loved you and still couldn't give him a chance?" Hodgins asked in shock.

"He never said he loved me," Brennan quickly corrected. Again, another sigh came from over the phone.

"I'm going to kill that man," Cam muttered bitterly.

"That would not be wise, Cam, considering you have Michelle in your custody. Plus, then we would have to instruct another agent and pathologist, assuming you were caught."

"Good to know that you're just as literal as before," Cam replied, only slightly sarcastically.

"She's not actually going to hurt him, Sweetie."

"Just give him a piece of my mind."

"I don't know what that means."

"I'll explain later, Sweetie." Brennan nodded at her friend's promise.

"Speaking of the devil," Cam said.

"No one was speaking about the devil, Cam," Brennan informed her.

"It's an expression, Dr. B," Hodgins laughed. Brennan's mouth formed an 'o' in understanding.

"Give me a second. Don't hang up," Cam instructed them. "Let me talk to Booth for a minute."

There was a moment of silence and a beep. Angela opened her mouth to say something, but the phone made a sound before she could.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Cam. You called me?" a deeper voice asked. It was not jovial as Brennan like to hear, but sounded very tired and troubled. Nonetheless, it was Booth's voice.

* * *

**So, how are you guys enjoying the story? **

**Next chapter has a lot more Booth. I promise. It will probably be up in a couple of days. :)**


	9. Telephone Conversations Part II

**Happy Martin Luther King, Jr. Day! **

**I do not own Bones. The characters belong to the producers and FOX.**

* * *

Brennan stared at the phone. Panic flowed through her veins- metaphorically, of course. Somehow, Cam had involved them in a three way call with Booth, the last person she really wanted to talk to. And Cam thought that Angela, Hodgins, and Brennan were on hold. The person recovering from amnesia wanted to inform her boss that they were not on hold, but knew the moment she opened her mouth, Booth would get a trace on Angela's cell phone. It might have been selfish, but she just was not ready to talk to Booth, yet. At least not with everyone listening. She looked at Angela and Hodgins to see how they were reacting to this. Angela sat back, as if ready to watch a movie and Hodgins opened his mouth as if to say something, but decided against it. So, she sat back like Angela and listened to the conversation unfold.

"Seeley, you do _not_ want to come back to Washington right now." Cam did not sound happy, which was odd considering she just seemed fine when she was talking to them.

"Why? What's wrong?" Concern was echoing in his voice. "Did you find something out about Bones?"

"I just talked to someone. Someone who confided in me why Dr. Brennan left."

"Have they talked to her recently? Do they know where she is? Is she okay? Can I talk to them? I'm flying home-" Booth rushed through the words with anticipation.

"Seeley, take a breath-"

"Bones is missing! No one has seen or heard from her in two weeks! We've got half the FBI in New Mexico and Colorado searching for her, and all we've found is that she arrived in New Mexico and rented a car but never made it to her dig which is exactly what we knew before I flew out here! And now you tell me that someone in Washington has seen her! And you want me to relax?"

"There's no one in Washington who's seen her since she boarded that plane." Brennan was surprised at how well Cam was keeping from Booth that she had talked to her.

"Okay, so why did she leave?" he breathed.

"Because you did something unbelievably stupid." Brennan looked up to see Angela suppress a grin, and Hodgins go wide-eyed with a small smile. She herself was in shock at Cam's bluntness, though she completely disagreed with it. He had done absolutely nothing wrong. He told her that he would have to move on; she was the social inept one and asked him to do something he couldn't do. It was her problem, not his.

"Whoa, are you blaming _me_ for Bones' disappearance? Because I hadn't talked to her since a day or two before she disappeared."

"This started way before she left, Seeley. Do you remember what you told me after your brain surgery?"

"What? You mean like two years? You're going to have to be more specific."

"You asked me to meet you at the Founding Fathers because you wanted my advice…"

Booth sighed into the phone. "I told you I was in love with Bones."

Angela opened her mouth to laugh in pure happiness and shock, but stopped the noise. Hodgins had a smile that spread across his face like the Cheshire Cat from Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland. Brennan however was in complete astonishment. Booth just verbally made it clear that at some point he thought he was in love with her. A memory floated through her head in milliseconds.

_**She was standing on a street in Washington DC next to Booth. It felt so natural, and for some reason she had missed this feeling. He had been recovering from surgery, and she had been on a dig. But they had put away their first murder since their return, and spending the evening together, as their tradition dictated. He randomly stopped on a street corner.**_

"_**Are you all right?" she questioned. His recent medical problem made her worry about him more than she cared to admit. She had barely left his bedside for three days while he was in his coma, not that he needed to know that. **_

_**A second passed before he answered, "Not really. I just, I have something I wanna say to you from inside my heart."**_

"_**Oh, blood's in your heart," she told him as they began to cross the street. "The idea that the heart is the seat of love and strength of character is ancient, but metaphoric. I mean, in reality these qualities are based in the amygdale which is part of the brain." She kept back that it was fairly near where he had recently had surgery done.**_

"_**No," he said, clearly frustrated. "I mean, ever since I've woken up from my coma, I've been wanting to say something." He stopped and grabbed her arm so that she turned to face him. "To you. About you."**_

"_**Well, why didn't you say something earlier?" she asked. Usually Booth would voice whatever was on his mind. She knew that they had shared more with each other than other friends. **_

"_**Because I just, I just wanted to finish this case. You know, to make sure that I'm back. That, that you know I'm me again," he responded, though she thought he acted somewhat flustered.**_** But Booth doesn't get flustered, **_**she reminded herself.**_

"_**Well, does the fact that we didn't close the case give you doubts?" It was true. They couldn't arrest the man responsible because there was no forensic evidence to support that he did it, because it was an old case. She began to continue to walk.**_

"_**No, we did the best that we can. Hold on." He was suddenly in front of her, with a suspicious look in his eyes. "You don't, you don't think that I'm back?"**_

"_**No," she said bluntly. "I know you're fully back."**_

_**The shock was evident on his face. "You do?"**_

"_**Well, you're wearing your socks." He had forgotten about his socks during the beginning of the case, but now he had them, so he was clearly back to his old self. His attitude was the same as before they removed the brain tumor, too. They both looked down at his stripe socks, and when they looked back up, there was a clown. **_

_**Brennan began to panic. Booth hated clowns; he had shot one on an ice cream truck before. "Oh, no." **_

_**The situation only got worse when the clown sprayed Booth in the eye with water from his flower. Booth bent over in agony.**_

"_**Oh, no," Brennan repeated, "he hates- oh, Booth, do **_**not **_**kill the clown." She placed on hand on his arm in case he tried to attack the silly man.**_

_**Instead, however, he began to laugh and actually honked the clown's nose. He repeats these actions, which confuses her even more. She froze and just watched him, since she was powerless to do anything else. This was just… Un-Boothy. Eventually, the clown began to back up his things, leaving an amused Booth and confused Brennan.**_

"_**Booth," she said, now doubting whether he was completely back, "you hate clowns. You do **_**not**_** think they're funny."**_

_**They began to walk, again. "Right… Before my coma I shot a clown… off an ice cream truck."**_

"_**Yeah. Well, I'm sure in a few weeks you'll hate clowns again. Be back to normal."**_

"_**Yeah, a few weeks," he echoed, as though he had suddenly become distracted by something.**_

"_**What did you want to tell me?" Brennan asked, trying to keep normalcy and place this event out of their heads. **_

_**A moment passed, before he responded. "That I love you."**_

_**Brennan froze. She must have misunderstood him. People didn't love her. Anyone who had ever told her they loved her had left her. Booth couldn't do that to her. She wasn't sure she could handle it if he did. He had been her constant over the past several years. Plus, Booth couldn't love her. He was attracted to 'leggy blondes' as Angela once put it. She was neither leggy nor blonde.**_

_**Then he added, "In a professional, you know, atta-girl kinda way."**_

"_**Atta-girl kinda way?" she repeated. She quickly determined it was like a friend, and relaxed. Everything was fine; nothing had changed. A smile formed on her face as she understood and said, "Right back at ya, Booth. I love you, too! Atta-boy."**_

_**But something inside of her began to think, **_**Why would I even let myself think he loved me for a brief amount of time? He doesn't want someone as broken as me. He needs someone to complete him. Someone who had the same ideals as him. Not someone he constantly argues with. He needs more than I can offer him. If we ever tried a relationship one of two things would happen. One, he would see how truly troubled I am and leave me. Two, I would not be what he expected, but out of loyalty he would stay around me and become miserable. Neither of those would be pleasant outcomes…**

That was the only time he had ever told her that he loved her. And that was clearly not the way that Cam was describing.

But Cam was not done yelling at Booth. "What else did I tell you?"

"To be sure before I told her. Why are you telling me all of this Cam?" His sentence was said with pure agitation.

Brennan's head began to spin again. They had been discussing how he was normal when he said he wanted to tell her something. Then the clown came, and he was not angry at him for being am entertainer. If they had not ran into the him, would Booth have added the 'atta-girl' statement? Did he really think he was in love with her then? Clearly, it must have just been a byproduct of his surgery and he never told her because he realized this.

"Why did I tell you to be sure, first, Seeley?" she questioned him, ignoring his own inquiries.

"I don't remember. That was two years ago!" Brennan recognized Booth's tone as frustrated.

"I told you that if you broke her heart, she die of loneliness before she ever opened up to someone again. So, what do you do? You tell her that you want to try a relationship with her, and leave out that you love her," Cam told him pointedly.

"I'm gunna kill Sweets," muttered Booth into the phone.

"Sweets?" Cam asked, as both Angela and Hodgins mouthed it to Brennan. The anthropologist shrugged.

"He isn't the one who told you about me asking Bones to try giving 'us' a chance?"

"No. Though, now you have to explain more."

"It's simple," he told his friend disdainfully. "I told her I wanted to give us a chance. She said no. I told her I had to move on. End of story."

"No," Cam half laughed. "This is far from over. Seeley, did you really think that the first time you asked, Dr. Brennan was just going to jump into your arms and you two would live happily ever after? Because you know her better than everybody else. And anyone who knows her knows that she would be afraid. Everyone who's ever indicated that they loved her has left her. Her parents, Russ, and now you."

"Whoa, wait a minute, I did not leave Bones!" Booth was beyond pissed now. "I would never do that, Camille! Never!"

"You let her leave for a year. In fact, you followed her example and went back to the army. And then you came back with Hannah. Don't get me wrong; I like Hannah. But you of all people should know that Dr. Brennan runs when she's dealing with her emotions. Think about it. Last time she went on a dig was right after your coma; when you weren't sure who she was. The time before that was right before your partnership; and I think Angela once told me it was because Dr. Brennan and her serious boyfriend broke up. She left the lab right before I came because she had just found out that her mother was dead. And almost went on another after both her father and Russ were arrested. And we can't forget dragging you to England after your fake death and Zack. Do you see a pattern, yet, Seeley? She leaves or thinks about leaving when she's in emotional pain. So, you coming back with a girlfriend did not help her at all. In fact, you stopped spending as much time with her as you used to. Or even just coming by the lab to say hi to her. So, yeah, you didn't physically leave her. But you did leaveher for Hannah, emotionally."

"She doesn't think about me like that, Cam! Why are we even discussing this, now? We should be looking for her!"

"You are not getting out of the rest of this conversation that easily, big guy. Because we both know what you just said is a load of bullshit. Dr. Brennan was the most vulnerable I've ever seen her during the surgeon's case about a month ago. And rumor has it she finally told you how she felt during that. Your response was that you love Hannah. And I'm not doubting you do. But are you _in_ love with her? Because if you aren't-"

"Cam!" Booth finally cut in. "Are you seriously suggesting that Bones left because she was jealous of Hannah? Because that's about the stupidest thing I've ever heard you say."

"No. I'm saying she left, because she opened herself up to you and you rejected her. You did the one thing you swore you never would. You left her. Not physically, but emotionally, which for her, is even worse. But do you want to know what the last straw for her was?"

"I'm sure you're going to tell me anyway," Booth said with an annoyed tone.

"When she heard you talking about a ring and a wedding."

Silence filled the living room, Cam's car, and wherever Booth was.

"She ran because she thought I was going to propose to Hannah?" Booth said in a dangerously quiet voice. Brennan recognized his tone as confusion and hurt.

"That's what it seems like to me."

Brennan, of course, sat there analyzing Booth's words. From his diction, it was logical to think that he had no intention of proposing to Hannah. But that didn't explain the ring, or why he was talking about a wedding.

"Cam, I swear to you on Parker's life, that I have no intention on proposing to Hannah in the near future. Especially without telling Bones or you first. Why didn't she come and talk to me about it? I would have told her…"

"I know. But she was hurt, so she followed her instincts."

Her words apparently did not register in Booth's mind. "I wouldn't do that to her. You have to believe me."

"I'm not the one you have to convince, Seeley."

"I know. But I have to find her, first."

Brennan had the wave of guilt rush over. She had acted irrationally, and caused everyone she cared about pain. She had made an assumption without sufficient evidence, something she lectured Booth and the rest of her team about on a fairly regular basis. There was no reason for her to run away; the only evidence that she had, she had misinterpreted (something that seemed to becoming a reoccurring thing when it came to Booth).

Suddenly, the front door of Dani's home, as she entered. "Hey, I got dinner."

All three squints' eyes went wide and shot between her and the phone.

"Cam," Booth said hesitantly, "who's there with you?"

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**Okay, this was one of my favorite chapters to write. I hoped you all enjoyed it. :)**


	10. Telephone Conversations Part III

**I do not own Bones or any of its characters. It belongs to the producers and FOX.**

* * *

Dani stopped and looked at Brennan, Angela, and Hodgins, who all had a slightly concerned look on their face. Her entrance had been loud enough for Booth and Cam to know that they had been eavesdropping for the last several minutes. And not one person in that room knew how the agent and pathologist would react.

There was an additional moment of silence. "Camille, is that the person who told you about Bones?"

"No," Cam answered immediately.

Dani sat down the groceries, and whispered so the people on the phone couldn't hear her, "Who is that and why is he asking about bones?"

"That's Booth," Angela whispered back. "And that's his nickname for Bren. Cam accidentally made it a three way call."

"They don't know you've been listening?"

"Booth doesn't for sure. Cam might have noticed by now."

"Well, that didn't come from my end of the phone," Booth assured Cam. "Are you at the Diner or something?"

"No. I'm in my car."

"Well, I'm in my hotel room, so I can guarantee it didn't come from here."

"Why don't you just say you're on the line?" Dani asked her friends in a hushed voice.

"Because Bren doesn't-"

Angela's murmur was interrupted by Brennan deciding Dani was right. There was no reason for her friends not to be aware that she was on the line with them. "Cam accidentally made this into a three way call, instead of placing us on hold."

Angela and Hodgins' jaws dropped almost comically, and Dani just sat there unsure of what just happened. Cam and Booth made absolutely no noise from their end of the phone. Brennan on the other hand began to realize the effect of her actions. She should have thought through the idea of telling them. Maybe she should have eased into it. Let Angela or Hodgins announce their presence first.

Finally, Booth was able to choke out one word. "Bones?"

"Hmm?" she asked, not sure if she could manage to say anything else.

Then it a floodgate of questions was opened. "Are you okay? Where are you? Are you safe? Are you hurt at all? Where have you been? Why-"

"Breath, Seeley," Cam instructed, cutting off his flow of questions.

"I'm fine. A broken arm and a few bruised ribs with amnesia."

"What happened?" Everyone could hear Booth's hotel room door close. "Where are you? I'm coming to get you."

"I'm fine!" she protested. "I was in a car accident. It was a hit and run. Someone stole my wallet while I was unconscious."

"Bones, you've been missing for two weeks. Being unconscious for that long isn't good! Jesus, you could have died."

"I'm aware of that, but I didn't. And I've been awake for several days. I just had trouble remembering details of my past."

"Okay, well, I'm still coming to get you. Just tell me where you are… You do know where you are, right?"

"He's persistent," Dani half laughed. Angela and Hodgins both nodded with a smirk.

"Who was that?"

"I'm Dani. Dani Webber."

"Okay, thank you, Ms. Webber, for letting Bones, uh, Temperance use your phone. If you can tell me where you are-"

"Booth, it's not Dani's phone," Brennan responded with an eye roll.

"What? Who's phone is it? Are you in some phone booth? Because those-"

"You need to relax, Seeley," Cam tried again.

"She's using my phone, G-Man," Angela filled in.

"Angela? You and Hodgins are there too?" Booth was clearly stunned.

"Guess us wanting to look on our own was a good idea after all," the bug- guy answered cheekily.

"Where are you?" Booth tried, yet again. This time they heard a door close again. Angela, Dani, and Hodgins' eyes all fell upon Brennan.

"I don't know where we are. Just that I was on my way to a dig in Colorado when I was in a wreck."

Angela rolled her eyes, and covered phone with her hand so their conversation wouldn't travel over the phone. She softly asked, "Do you want Booth here or not? Because a few minutes ago you were begging us not to call him to let him know you were okay."

She nodded and quietly said, "He should know." Brennan understood that Booth wouldn't stop until he found them now, and it would hurt him to know that she refused to tell him where they were. She had caused enough damage.

Angela gave her a reassuring smile. Booth, however, was getting impatient. "Bones? Angela? Hodgins? You still there?"

"You are going to hurt yourself if you don't calm down!" Cam scolded him yet again.

"Booth, do you remember when you came to help me find Kirk?"

"What?" The question startled Booth.

"About six or seven months after you and Bren started working together full time. I went on vacation and my boyfriend went missing."

"I remember. I just- You're near the Indian Reservation?"

"We're at Dani's. It's a street away from the sheriff's department."

"Okay, I was there once like six years ago. I don't remember that much."

"When you get closer, call us back for more specific directions," Dani suggested.

"That would require me to get _off_ the phone. Which isn't going to happen."

"Booth, it's not safe to talk on the phone and drive-"

"Bones, you've been missing for almost two weeks. You think I'm going to willing get off this phone until I see you?"

A small smile fell upon Brennan's lips, knowing that he wouldn't let go of that phone unless it was pulled from his dead body. It felt good to know that he still cared; but in this case his actions were highly unnecessary. Brennan knew that he shouldn't be talking on the phone if he was going to be driving. Yes, he did a lot in DC, but he was usually well rested. She quickly decided to manipulate him off the phone. She knew his habit of hanging up when he became annoyed. Maybe he would be less patient with her than usual, and hang up out of habit. "I'm not going to disappear again just because you hang up the phone!"

"Just," he answered in an argument tone. But instead of continuing with whatever he was going to say, he sighed. "Let me do this, okay?"

Brennan considered pointing out to him how irrational he was acting, but decided that that wouldn't accomplish anything. "Booth, it's a nine hour drive."

"And you've been up since the crack of dawn," Cam added.

"I don't care. The airport won't have any flights this late. And won't until in the morning. Look, I'm already in my car driving. I'll get there faster if I drive."

"Booth, you'll get tired. You're brain needs time to rest, otherwise your immune system will be compromised and you won't have the mental acuity that you are used to. And you'll have more trouble driving if you're tired. It would be smarter if you rested for the night."

"Bones, I'm coming now." It was a statement with an undeniable tone. Suddenly, his end of the line went silent.

"Booth?" Brennan questioned.

"He hung up, Dr. Brennan," Cam told her. At least he was off the phone.

"I thought he said he wouldn't hang up."

"Neither did he. But when he gets frustrated, he usually hangs up."

"Is he still coming right now?" Dani asked.

"Yes," a unanimous answer echoed, humor flashing between their eyes.

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**What did you all think? **


	11. Explanations and El Salvador

**Hey! Anyone else really happy new episodes have started up again?**

**Anyway, I don't own Bones. It belongs to the producers, etc.**

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Brennan, Angela, Hodgins, and Dani stayed up on the phone with Cam for another hour or so, trying to catch Brennan up on what she had missed. Cam never questioned their eavesdropping during their conversation, much to Brennan's surprise. Eventually, Cam said she had to get home to Michelle.

Dani gave the couple her bed, and Brennan dragged the cot into the living room, much to everyone else's displeasure. By ten o'clock, all were in their sleeping spots for the night. Dani was laying on the couch, as Brennan settled for bed.

"It's definitely been an interesting day," Dani laughed.

"I concur. I'm happy that you and Angela know each other," she responded, closing her eyes as she laid down.

"Me too. I just wish that I could have gotten her and Jack here sooner."

"I think it was good timing. It gave me time to remember things on my own."

"About Booth." Brennan opened one eye to look at Dani, trying to understand her statement. There was a slight smirk on the woman's lips.

"In addition to other things." She closed her eye, and hoped that she would be able to get some sleep.

"Speaking of Booth, what did he and Cam talk about when you were eavesdropping?" This time two eyes shot open. Brennan had yet to really think about the conversation since Booth and Cam had been made aware of the three way call. Part of her didn't want to analyze it; the other part however was yearning to talk about it.

"Cam mostly explained why I left. She spent most of the time blaming him- but he's done nothing wrong. I don't understand why everyone feels the need to blame Booth, when it's clearly my fault."

Dani sat up a little and looked her friend in the eye. "You know how when someone gets hurt, the people who care about them try to find someone to blame? Even if it's not the person's fault."

"Yes. But there's _no one_ to blame in this case except for me, in my case."

"Then why does it seem like Angie, Jack, and your boss all want to blame him?"

"I don't know. I told them I just didn't want to be there when he proposed to Hannah-"

"He was going to what?" Brennan realized that Dani hadn't been there when everyone else found out.

"I misunderstood the situation, and believed that Booth was going to ask Hannah to marry him. But he has no intention of doing so. Therefore, it is my fault."

"Does he know how you feel about him?"

"I don't know what you mean."

"Does he know that you're in love with him?" Brennan was happy that she actually knew this answer, though she highly disagreed with what Dani was implying.

"I don't love him. Love is just-"

"It's a yes or no question. Not a philosophical one."

"Yes, I admitted to him about a month ago that I had romantic feelings for him."

"And he told you…"

"That he was with Hannah, now, and that he loved her."

"Oh, Brennan, I'm sorry," Dani reached out for Brennan. She hated when people pitied her, even if they did it subconsciously.

"There's nothing for you to be sorry about. It was my mistake."

"You put your heart out there. That's nothing to be sorry about."

"I sometimes worry that I hurt his relationship with Hannah," Brennan admitted. She knew how much the reporter meant to Booth, and did not want to be the cause of their problems.

"If they can't get through it, then they clearly aren't soul mates." Dani was trying to comfort her, before muttering under her breath, "And from what I've heard, I don't think they are."

Brennan, however did not understand what she meant by the final comment, so she chose to ignore it. Her mouth was stretched open by a yawn. "We should get some sleep."

Dani nodded, mid-yawn herself. They turned off the lamp leaving them in darkness. It only took Brennan a few minutes to drift to sleep.

_**She could feel the muggy temperature surrounding her body, and took frequent drinks from her thermos. She was standing under a tent, looking down at a skeleton. It was a girl's remains, probably around thirteen years old at her time of death. She had been found in the bottom of a well. She had clearly been placed there post mortem, most likely by the murderer. There was no doubt in the anthropologist's mind that this was not a natural death, because the cause of death was clearly the gunshot wound to the head. She felt for this girl; she had been a so young, too young to really have done anything to warrant her death. **_

_**Suddenly there was another presence near her. She looked up to see an armed man. He was wearing some type of uniform. It would make sense that someone had been sent to protect her; rumors of gangs in the area had caused many of her colleagues to worry. Though, she did not believe them; there was no proof of the hostile people.**_

_**She looked at the man. He was approximately her age, and somewhat taller than her. His muscular build was rather impressive. He was the type of man that would intimidate most people. But she was not most people.**_

"_**Dr. Brennan?" he questioned, in a thick El Salvadoran accent.**_

"_**Yes. You aren't really needed here," she told him dismissively, returning her attention the girl's remains.**_

"_**You need to stop." Brennan looked back up at him, confused.**_

"_**No, I need to identify this victim."**_

"_**She is no one. Come with me." Brennan looked up at the man. Suddenly, something did not feel right. She knew when she was in danger; an instinct that had developed when she was in the foster system.**_

"_**And if I refuse?" she asked daringly. The man stuck his head outside of the tent and said something that Brennan couldn't quite make out, in any language. Suddenly there were two more equally threatening looking men in behind the first. One had some rope, the other a dark bag.**_

"_**Are you?" he asked. She didn't answer, but she watched them. She was ready to defend herself if necessary. After a minute, the leader of them nodded. His two henchmen approached her. She was able to knee one in the gut, and deliver a good punch to the other's jaw. However, they were able to overpower her. Before she knew it, she had the bag over her head, and it was being tied shut under jaw. Not tight enough to choke her, but an adequate amount of force to keep it there. She couldn't see anything. So, she was surprised when she felt a hard blow to her head.**_

_**When she regained consciousness, she was in a dark room with no light. She tried to move, but it hurt to put pressure anywhere. It only took her a minute to realize why she was in so much pain. She had felt this type of pain after a couple of her foster fathers had beaten her. Apparently the men who had taken her had taken advantage of her defenselessness and attacked her. She wondered how long she had been out. It felt like a couple of days, though it might have been as little as hours. She looked around. It was a dirt floor with concrete walls. There were no windows or anything leading to the outside world. She then heard a creak and looked towards the noises source. She felt a searing pain to the back of her skull, and quickly fell back into darkness.**_

_**She was next aware what seemed like a couple of days since she had woken up. The man she originally thought to be her guard had come to visit her several times. Each time he would beat her, each time telling her how she was worthless. She took it though, never giving him the satisfaction of showing him how afraid she was or giving into his demands.**_

"_**You awake?" said a familiar accented voice. She looked up to see the leader of the men closing a door behind him.**_

"_**I demand you release me!" she stated, just as she had ever time he came to talk to her. Suddenly she felt a hand whip across her face. He apparently had the same response, as well. **_

"_**Do not speak unless spoken to." Brennan couldn't stop the scoff from escaping her throat, earning her several punches to the ribs. "You learned too much. We can't have you telling everyone."**_

"_**What? About you killing innocent children? And then disposing of them like they're trash? People already know about it." The man's jaw clenched. He pulled out his gun and pointed it at her. Just as he had done every other time he visited.**_

"_**They were nothing. Just like you. You will be disposed like them. Only no one will find you. No one will hear your screams as you die painfully; and if they do, they will not care about you. No one will worry about you." He watched as his words sank in on her. He was planning on killing her at some point; she'd known that for days. Possibly now. Panic began to fill her body. She wasn't ready to die. She didn't have a chance to say goodbye to Angela, nor to tell Zack that he was an exceptional student. She had not told Hodgins how his anger management had improved and made him much more pleasant to be around. She never found out what happened to her parents. She still had a lot she wanted out of life. But she may never have the opportunity now.**_

"_**You scared now, right?" a sick smile showed on her capture's face. "I will be back later. Maybe if you behave you will get water."**_

_**He walked out of the room, the irritating grin still in its place. The moment she was alone again, she finally let all the emotions she had been withholding broke free. Suddenly there was pounding coming from the cell next to her. Usually, after her, whoever was in the cell beside hers was tortured. The pounding just increased in volume, though.**_

Brennan sat straight up on the cot breathing heavily and shaking. El Salvador had not been the trip she expected. The dark, damp cell that had contained her for three days had reminded her very much of the trunk she had been stuffed into as a teenager. And the leader of the gang had come to visit her several times daily, and left at least one mark during each time. Listening to those who surrounded her being tormented when it was not her being beaten.

Suddenly she registered that there was someone beating on Dani's door. She knew Dani was a deep sleeper, and Angela and Hodgins' door was closed, but how could they all sleep through the noise? She slowly got up, and made her way through the door. She glanced at the clock as she moved towards it. Five-oh-one in the morning; who would be knocking so early in the morning? She assumed that it was no one too dangerous. Otherwise they would have just broken in. However, after her dream, she was prepared to attack anyone who made a threatening move towards her.

She opened the door to see a large, masculine figure, resting his head against the door frame. His body looked exhausted and there were bags under his closed eyes. His face was somewhere between worried and anxious and he was mumbling something under his breath.

"God, please, let her be okay. I need her to be okay."

He was clearly distracted if his sniper sensitive hearing did not hear her open the door.

"You drove straight here?" she asked softly but pointedly. His head shot up, he looked her once over trying to estimate how much pain she was in. Suddenly, his arms were around her, pulling her as close as humanly possible.

All the worries from her past disappeared for a brief moment. She automatically wrapped her unbroken arm around him. She felt safe in his arms like she always did. And he said one thing that made her feel just a little safer.

"Bones."

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**Next chapter is all B&B conversation. :)**


	12. Late Night Conversation

**i'm so sorry it took me so long to update! My muse kinda disappeared for a couple of days, but is back now. **

**Anyway, the usual disclaimers apply. I assume you know them; if not, check out a previous chapter.**

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Brennan had absolutely no idea how long she and Booth stood in the doorway in a guy hug. It may have been seconds; it might have been hours. Either way, it felt right. She had remembered what it felt like to be in his embrace, but the actual event was much more satisfying than the memories had indicated. Several moments ran through her head, all of which involved her holding on to Booth and many involving tears. He had always been there to comfort her with his guy hugs- which felt very different then when she hugged Hodgins, another male friend, she noted.

Eventually, reality crashed in. She remembered that Booth had Hannah waiting for him; that as much as his hugs comforted her, he was not hers to hold. This reminder caused her to pull away from his embrace. He resisted letting her go at first, but finally did. Though, she did notice that he kept his hands on her shoulders.

"How are you, Booth?" Brennan asked in a whisper, trying not to wake Dani up.

"You've been missing for weeks, and you're asking me how _I'm_ doing?" Booth laughed quietly.

"Yes." She had been worried about him. He must have been under a lot of pressure since her disappearance; he had a tendency to claim much of the responsibility, especially when it came to her. Plus, Booth was more likely to have trouble with his back when he was stressed.

His response was just to smile his contagious grin. "God, I missed you, Bones."

"And I missed you." Her heart was beating faster than normal. _Most likely due to my dream earlier,_ Brennan reminded herself, though no part of her believed it. Her mind came to another, more likely conclusion._ It's not uncommon for pulse to quicken when attracted to- Stop! This is Booth. Your friend who is in a committed relationship with Hannah. You decided to let him have his own personal life, and you would have your own._

"What about you? I mean, you've got a broken arm. And did you say something on the phone about amnesia?" His questions brought her back to the present. She noticed his exhausted, brown eyes were filled with worry.

"Yes. But my memories have been returning to me. Angela and Hodgins reminded me of many things today. I believe that when I return to Washington more memories will return."

A flicker of disappointment might have flashed across his face, but was gone before she could confirm that she was not imaging it. There was nothing for him to be unhappy about. Maybe it was related to his lack of sleep. It suddenly dawned on Brennan that Booth had probably not been asleep since he woke up the previous morning, and had been stressed during the day.

"You should come inside and get some sleep," Brennan told him, stepping out of his way.

"I can sleep in my car," he said as if it was nothing.

"That will hurt your back!" she reminded him, trying not to let her voice rise above a harsh whisper.

"I'll be fine. I just wanted to make sure you were safe. Plus, I thought someone might call the sheriff's deputy if I just slept in their driveway." He gave her that stupid smile that made her heart beat faster than it should.

But she kept a straight face as she said, "If they were to call for you sleeping in their driveway, what would stop them from calling when you began knocking on their front door this early in the morning?" His logic was completely flawed. She knew Booth was not the logical part of their partnership, but even he had enough to see how his statement was irrational.

"Didn't really think about that. Believe it or not, Bones, not everyone is highly logical when running on four hours sleep for twenty-three hours," he joked.

"You should really get some sleep."

Booth's response was to grin and hold back a laugh. Brennan though over her words for a second, trying to figure out what she might have said that would be this entertaining.

When she was unable to find anything, she asked. "What?"

"I'm getting lectured on the importance of sleep from you, the woman who I've _literally_ had to drag out of the lab so that you don't work all night."

"I don't work all night! I usually sleep for a couple of hours in my office!" Angela had reminded her of several times she had done exactly that earlier.

"Are you sure you have amnesia? Because you seem like the same ole Bones I've known and l- I've known for years." She glared at him. She had noticed his stumble, but was unsure about what word he had shied away from.

"Yes, I'm positive. There are still some gaps in my memory… Now, are you going to come in and get some sleep or stand out here all night?"

He sighed. His eyes flickered back to an SUV that had not been there when Brennan fell asleep. She noticed that it was visually identical to the one Booth drove in DC. "I'm coming."

Once he entered, Brennan quietly shut the door behind him. Booth stood a couple of steps within the door, his eyes scanning the room. They finally fell upon the living room, where Dani was still sleeping sound.

"You can have the cot," Brennan told him. Booth turned to look at her like she was crazy.

"Where are you sleeping? It looks like you were sleeping there."

"I was. But your back will be less sore if you sleep on it."

"I'm not taking your bed away from you!" The idea seemed to both anger and surprise him.

Brennan rolled her eyes. "If I didn't want you to sleep on it, then I wouldn't have offered it to you. Plus, it is not a bed. And it's not mine, either. It belongs to Dani."

"Seriously, I'm sleep in my car." He started to go back outside, but she stood in his way.

Brennan really didn't want to fight about this with Booth now. He was exhausted and she was tired. "It makes logical sense for you to take the cot. Your back will hurt tomorrow if you sleep in your car or the floor. My arm will still be broken whether I sleep on the cot or not."

"Bones, I'm not going to make you sleep on the floor!" he hissed. Dani made a quiet noise, and rolled over; making both the agent and anthropologist freeze until her breathing steadied, again.

"I don't want to wake Dani up. The cot is only big enough for one of us. You take it, and I'll sleep on the floor. I've slept in worse places than a carpeted floor," Brennan told him, thinking back to her dream. She knew if she told him about being in worse physical pain, he would begin to show his alpha male qualities.

Booth looked from the cot to Dani to Brennan before closing his eyes and sighing. "Fine. But tomorrow, you take the cot with no argument."

She made no agreement, but Booth didn't seem to notice as he moved towards the cot. Brennan grabbed a pillow from Dani's feet and a blanket that she had kicked off during the night.

After about five minutes, Booth was comfortably lying on the cot and Brennan was wrapped in a blanket about three feet away from him.

"Good night, Booth," she told him.

"Night, Bones," he mumbled, into his pillow.

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**Hope you guys liked this chapter. :)**

**Oh, and just out of curiosity, does anyone know which episode(s) Booth actually verbalizes that he won't ever leave Brennan? I remember hearing him promise, but I can't remember the circumstances surrounding it.**


	13. Who was knocking at the ungodly hour?

**Okay, so I know you guys probably hate me for taking so long to update. Would you believe that I got so caught up in a story that I spent the past few days reading it instead of writing? Yeah, its still just an excuse, but we can all relate to it right?**

**Anyway, I was really happy that we finally had a sentimental ending to an episode last night! It might not have been as fluffy as stuff from previous seasons, but at least it was something. By the way, if you haven't seen the sniper episode, you should. No, there won't be spoilers for it in this. **

**Normal FF disclaimers apply.**

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Brennan never really fell back asleep that night, and it was not because of the floor. She would doze for about fifteen to thirty minutes at a time, but never enough to fall into a REM sleep. And every noise, whether it was the house creaking or a large car passing by, made her jolt awake. It didn't help that the time she was not dozing Cam and Booth's conversation ran through her head. She just could not comprehend how Booth could have possibly thought he loved her at one point. She was not as emotionally open as him. She was closed off enough that some had referred to her as a cold fish. Plus, she and Booth always bickered over nothing. Weren't people in love supposed to get along and have the same values? That criterion alone would exclude her and Booth. Plus, he had always made it sound like love was supposed to be eternal; and yet, his claimed love for her had disappeared with time. Using these decisive factors, Booth could not have loved her.

A few minutes before seven, Brennan heard the bedroom door creek open and footsteps lead towards the bathroom. Brennan sat up just in time to see Angela's back hurry into the bathroom. Angela was not one to get up at seven if she didn't have to; so, she would probably go back to bed in a few minutes. She laid back down with eyes closed, knowing this late in the morning she would not slumber any more. Oddly enough, a couple of seconds later a loud vibrating sound went off. Brennan was about to open her eyes to find the source of the sound when she heard Booth begin to move.

"Booth," he answered, somewhere between a grumble and a whisper. After a pause, he said, "Yeah, I'm fine. Just give me a second, okay?"

Brennan heard him stand up and walk outside. As soon as he was not in the room, she went and sat at the table. She was happy it was quiet and Booth had left the front door open. It meant she could hear his conversation. _I'm eavesdropping on Booth a lot lately. I wonder if there was brain damage that is now causing me to invade people's privacy. What's the term? Eary? No, nosey? That sounds right. I'll check with Angela later._

Booth started talking on the phone, so Brennan sat up and began to listen. "I'm not at the Denver office. I drove to New Mexico last night… Yeah, something like that… Better than a lead. Angela and Hodgins found her… Yesterday… She's okay. She had a broken arm and had some amnesia, but seems to be remembering everything fine now… Me too… You don't have to; feel free to stay as long as you need… No, I'm not taking back my decision… It's just better this way. I can't commit one hundred percent to it, anymore… No, I meant what I said. You can stay there as long as need. I won't be back for a couple of days. And I can go stay with Jared-… Really? That was fast... Of course, I'm happy for you. I'm just really sorry about all of this…Yeah?... I'll try not to."

Brennan was very confused whatever Booth had just been talking about. She half expected him to come back in, but a minute passed.

And then another…

And then another…

The clock was approaching about seven- ten when Brennan felt a hand on the back of her shoulder. She whipped her head around to see Angela standing behind.

"You're up early, Sweetie."

"You too. I thought you wouldn't be up for another couple of hours."

"Small bladder. I have my child to thank for that." She walked to the other side of the table and sat across from her best friend. Brennan however continued to stare at the door, almost willing Booth to come back in.

Angela apparently picked up on her distraction. "Penny for your thoughts?"

"I don't know what that means."

Angela smiled. "What are you thinking about?"

Brennan considered lying to Angela, but she quickly decided against it. Angela always had good advice when it came to relationships. And Brennan needed that more than anything right now. "Booth."

"Nervous about when you see him?" Brennan looked towards her friend, very confused. At least until she remembered that Booth had shown up in the middle of the night when everyone else was still asleep.

"No. I'm just confused." Her crystal blue eyes flickered over to the door to make sure he wasn't coming in that moment. "I know he is in a serious relationship with Hannah and that he loves her. But at the same time, I keep remembering what Cam said… It's stupid. Never mind, Ange." Brennan know felt like an idiot. She knew the facts, hers and Cam's opinions, and what she wanted to happen. She shook her head and was about to go make coffee. But Angela stopped her.

"Bren, it's not stupid. You love, Booth. And when you finally admitted it to him-"

"I never told Booth I loved him," Brennan interrupted.

Angela rolled her eyes and continued. "And when you finally admitted it to him, he told you he couldn't. You're allowed to hurt. And eventually, Booth will see he's made a mistake and you two will hopefully do what I've been telling you to do for the past seven years."

Brennan smirked and shook her head. Angela had been telling her that she and Booth needed to have intercourse since they met during Gemma Arrington's case.

"I'm going to go get the paper," Angela told her, standing up.

"Will you make sure Booth is alright?" Brennan asked. He still hadn't come in back in.

Angela stopped and looked at her friend. "Sweetie, is there something you forgot to tell me?"

"Booth got here a couple hours ago. I was letting him sleep on the cot. He got a phone call and went outside while you were in the bathroom. He hung up several minutes ago and hasn't come in yet. I'm slightly concerned, considering he has complained about the heat before."

"I'll check on for you. But for future reference, that's something you tell me when I ask what's on your mind."

She almost pointed out that this situation would probably never occur again, but realized that wasn't the meaning Angela was trying to make. Brennan nodded and watched her friend go out the door. Brennan then stood up and started the coffee for everyone.

A few minutes later, Angela came in, Booth following a couple of steps behind her.

"Morning, Bones."

"Good morning, Booth. Did you sleep okay?"

"Yeah. What about you?"

"I never fell back asleep." She watched as the guilt washed over his face.

"You should go back to bed, then. Take the cot. Trust me, I'm not going back to sleep."

"You only got two hours of sleep. And you were awake for twenty-three hours yesterday. You need more rest to function at your best."

"I'll be fine."

Suddenly, the door to the bedroom opened to reveal a tired looking Hodgins.

"Hey, you guys having a party out here or something?" he asked rubbing his face. Then he noticed the other man. "Booth? When did you get here?"

"Couple hours ago. Bones let me in."

"Was that you that was knocking at the door at an ungodly hour this morning?"

"Five in the morning is not an 'ungodly hour.' Booth has awakened me up at two or three in the morning for a case before," Brennan chimed in. This made the men stare at her, while Angela just smirked.

"Yeah, sorry about that," Booth apologized, deciding to ignore Brennan's comment. "I just wanted to make sure this was the right house."

"Next time, just pick up a phone, man."

Dani let a small groan out and sat up. "Who's up?" she asked, rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

"Everyone. Did you know Booth showed up last night?" Angela answered.

Dani looked at the man in her kitchen, and her eyes widened a little. "Oh, gosh. Um, hi. I'm Dani. I think we talked on the phone yesterday."

"I remember," Booth replied, then shined one of his patented charm smiles.

"I let him in several hours ago," Brennan said, for the third time.

"Okay, well, I was planning on picking up donuts before everyone got up. Let me go brush my teeth and I'll head out."

"Mind if I tag along?" Angela asked. "I haven't really said hi to everyone since I got here. Kinda got distracted."

"By what?" Brennan questioned. Four sets of eyes looked at her as though she had lost her mind- which she had to some degree. "Oh."

"If you want," Dani smiled, finally getting off the couch.

"I'd like to have a look around too," Hodgins told them while eying Booth and Brennan.

Ten minutes later, the three of them left the cottage, leaving Booth and Brennan completely alone for the first time since they solved the Eames case.

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**So, what do you all think? Good, bad, okay? Let me know.**

**Oh, and I probably won't be able to get the next chapter up until sometime next week. Sorry. **


	14. Explanation from the Agent

**Hey, everyone! Here's the next chapter!**

**Normal disclaimers apply.**

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Booth watched as Dani, Angela, and Hodgins walked out of the small house. Once they closed door behind them, he turned to Brennan; and she realize he wanted to talk. He maintained eye contact as he took the seat across from her that Angela had been sitting in only minutes before. Brennan suddenly felt as though she was one of Hodgins' particulates under a microscope. It was an intense stare, one that she was pretty sure that she had seen him use in the interrogation room on many occasions. After about thirty seconds of this, Brennan could not handle the tension. So, she stood up and poured two cups of coffee and added the correct amount cream and sugar in each cup. She knew that it was out of habit, since she had no idea how Booth took his coffee. The entire time, she could feel his eyes boring into the back of her head.

"Booth, is there something you want to say, or are you just staring at me for fun?" she asked, her eyes never leaving the coffee cups in front of her. She heard him shift in his seat.

"We need to talk."

"Okay," she said, feeling the tension continuing to radiate off him. She returned to the table and placed his cup in front of him. "What do you want to talk about?"

"I know that you were listening last night when I was talking to Cam. I just don't know how much of it you heard." Brennan had taken a sip, but quickly froze with the warm cup on her lips. She knew they were eventually going to have this conversation, but she thought it would be in a few days after Booth had rested. She debated lying to him and telling him that she had walked in with Dani. But she knew she had put him through enough over the past couple of weeks and he deserved the truth.

"The entire conversation. Cam asked us not to get off the phone, because she would just put us on hold."

She watched as Booth's expression changed. "I'm gonna kill Cam."

"I assume you don't mean that literally." Booth gave her a half smile.

"No, I don't." He paused before saying, "So, you heard about the talk Cam and I had after my coma."

"Yes, and I completely understand. You don't need to worry about it." She felt her heart begin to crush as she said those words. She understood, but that didn't mean that it didn't hurt.

"For some reason, Bones, I doubt you do."

"Your brain was still adjusting from your surgery. It had the side-effect of making you believe that you were in love with me. When it wore off, you decided not to mention it to me. You, believing that love is eternal, thought maybe if we pursued a romantic relationship your feelings would return. However, I stopped your advances. And then when you went off to Afghanistan, you met Hannah and the feeling of love came back." It sounded logical; it sounded plausible; and it gave Booth a way to walk away from this conversation before her heart was completely torn apart.

"Like I said, I doubt you understand," he told her, looking her straight in the eye. "Things would be a lot simpler if you right; but you aren't. And I know those aren't words you're used to hearing. But it's the truth this time."

"I don't know what means."

Booth smiled again. "You should really patent that phrase." She looked at him as though he had lost his mind. It was impossible to patent a phrase as common as that. Booth continued as though he had said nothing. "In this case, it means that nothing you just said is right. I went to talk to Cam, because I wanted to make sure that the idea didn't sound crazy. Course, she didn't even need me to say it to figure it out. Anyway, I was going to tell you, but right when I was about to that clown came out of nowhere, and I knew that I wasn't completely back then because I didn't want to shoot him. And I didn't want to tell you and then it only be because of my coma. You deserved better than that. So, I just added the 'atta-girl' shit."

Brennan realized then realized he was talking about loving her. Her heart rate began to hasten and she felt her stomach tighten. He couldn't really be saying he had loved her, could he? He had Hannah. _He loves_ her_. Not me! But that's the only rational thing he could be alluding to. _

"I decided to give it some time; you know, see what happened. And the only thing that changed was that my feelings for you got stronger. And then Sweets pushed me to tell you. I thought with the way things had been going, you'd say yes. To us. So, I asked you that night in front of the Hoover building. But you said no, so I told you I needed to move on. And I tried. But you were- are- still my standard for women. Not like anyone can really live up to you, though. And then you said you were going to the Malipoopoo Islands and the army came and asked me to go and train snipers. I thought maybe that year apart would help me move on. And it did, kinda. I met Hannah and we had this spark. And for the first time in six years, I wasn't comparing a woman to you and finding every flaw. And Hannah loved me; she was easy to talk to. I thought I had really moved on. But then when we came back, you were here and I felt those feelings coming back for you. I knew that if I wasn't careful, I'd lose what I had with Hannah because I would be more interested in you. So, I tried to put some space between us. And I thought everything was going to be okay. Things seemed to be going great, at least for me. I just assumed that they were for you too. But then you told me that you thought you'd had made a mistake and all those feelings I had been pushing away for months broke through. But I couldn't say yes, Bones. As much as I wanted to, I couldn't. I had Hannah. So I tried to put more space between us. I hated to do it, but I knew that it was how I had moved on and thought it might help you too. It was a stupid mistake."

Brennan listened patiently, noticing that he never once said that he loved her (_Or Hannah,_ a hopeful voice reminded her). But he definitely implied his feelings for her. And it wasn't in a past tense. But why would he be telling her this now? Shouldn't he be denying having feelings for her since he did have Hannah?

"And then I got that call from Cam saying that you had left on a dig but didn't actually get there and wondering if I had heard from you. That's really when I realized how far I pushed you away. I mean, I didn't even know that you had left for a dig. That in itself was a wake-up call. You usually talked about digs for weeks before going on them. I thought maybe I had just missed the memo. But when I asked Cam more about it, she said that it was a spur of the moment thing for you. And that kinda worried me. I mean, you never go one sporadic digs. So, I knew something must be really wrong- I just didn't think it was me. But I was on the next plane out here. I was in such a rush I forgot to tell Hannah until she called me to ask when I would be home for dinner. But I didn't care; I had to come find you.

"I've barely slept the past two weeks. I've been looking into any leads about where you might be. I tracked down everyone who had ever threatened you from Ortiz to your foster parents. I pulled in every favor I had to try and find you. No one could ever find anything. And I kept having my Quantico instructor's voice in my head telling that every day that passed made it less likely that I'd find you. But I also had your voice telling me not to jump to any conclusions. That saved me, Bones. I knew that you wouldn't give up, so I kept on looking. Then two days ago, Hacker told me that if we didn't find you by tomorrow, they were giving up because you were probably dead. I was going to break it to the squints last night. But then I called Cam to tell her and she started to get on me for what an ass I had been to you. I didn't want to hear it, but I needed to. And, well, you know it from there."

Brenan knew he was watching her as she absorbed what he was saying. Her usually quick to process brain had was having a difficult time understanding exactly what he was saying. He had put her ahead of Hannah, the woman he loved? Or did he even love his girlfriend like he had been claiming to for the past several months? And he was avoiding her to help her move on? Yes, she had noticed the time they spent together had been limited, but she had just assumed that he was unaware of the change and that she was hyper sensitive to it because of her recently discovered feelings.

For once, Dr. Temperance Brennan was speechless. She wanted to say the right thing, but had no idea what that was right now. But she trusted her mind to find something. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have come on this dig. It would have saved everyone from unnecessary pain."

Booth replied quietly, "Cam said that someone told her you left because you thought I was going to propose to Hannah. You're the one who told her that, right?"

Brennan nodded slowly.

"Why didn't you come talk to me? I would have told you that I wasn't. I wouldn't have without talking to you first. You know you're my best friend, Bones."

"I wasn't thinking clearly. I listened to my heart and it told me too run as fast and as far as I could. I just heard you talking to that man about a wedding and a ring, and I jumped to a conclusion. This is why I always tell everyone not to jump to conclusions. They're often wrong."

"Well, you have the wedding part right. Paul wanted my opinion on the ring before he proposed."

"Why did he want your opinion? . He called you 'Special Agent,' indicating you do not have a close relationship with him. And the one time you proposed to a woman, she turned you down"

"Thanks, Bones," he answered, sarcastically. "And it's because I'm good friends with his girlfriend. It was between me or her sister, and he wasn't sure if Felicia could keep the secret."

Brennan mind began to turn. She knew the name Felicia. It was one she was familiar with, though she couldn't place a face with the name at the moment. Booth apparently noticed her memory lapse.

"Felicia is Cam's sister." Brennan felt relief as soon as he answered her unasked question. Then the implication of his statement set in.

"Cam's engaged?" Why had no one mentioned that to her yesterday?

"No, because Cam cancelled her date to try to help find you," Booth smiled.

"Cam going on a date with her boyfriend would not have affected when I was found," she pointed out. Logically, Cam taking one night off had no influence on when Angela and Hodgins would have come to visit Dani.

"Maybe. But if she was missing, would you go out with your boyfriend?"

"I don't have a boyfriend," she reminded him.

"Pretend for a moment, Bones."

She didn't even have to think about the answer. "No, I wouldn't. I would be looking for evidence to find her."

"Exactly."

Brennan decided that Cam and Paul's engagement was another event to add on to her list of things she had messed up by going on an unnecessary dig.

Both looked down at their coffee, trying to figure out where to take the conversation from here. Brennan didn't like this awkwardness that now seemed to be forming between them. She missed being able to talk to him about anything, and have the discussion flow naturally. She missed how they could talk about nothing and debate the most philosophical questions in the same exchange, and not even notice. On how many occasions had they discussed the existence of God? Of love?

"Why did you tell about loving me?" she asked suddenly. It didn't make sense for him to do that now. Not when he had Hannah and wanted her to move on with her life.

Booth who had just taken a sip of his coffee about choked on the liquid. When he was finally able to breath, he asked, "Huh?"

"You told me about how you felt about me since your coma. Why? You're dating Hannah, but you implied that you love me. It doesn't make sense. Shouldn't you be hiding those feelings from me now?"

He opened his mouth to explain, but the door opened to reveal Angela, Dani, and Hodgins with breakfast in hand.

"I'll tell you later," Booth promised.

She wanted answers, now; but knew that he didn't want to talk about it with everyone else there. _What goes on between us is ours._ The phrase rang through her head.

"Hope you guys are hungry," Angela told them. "Because we have enough food for ten people."

"Yeah, but you're eating for two, Angie," Hodgins reminded her.

"So? That still only makes six of us."

Soon all _six_ were around the table with a rather large breakfast on each plate.

* * *

**So, Brennan's obliviously missing a key piece of information some of you have figured out... Don't worry, though, she'll get it next chapter.**

**Just out of curiosity, did anyone make the Cam/Paul connection before this chapter?**


	15. Truth at the Table

**Okay, I'm taking this time to rant about the spoilers for next week and the one that aired last night (in addition to this season). So if you don't know and don't want to know, you might want to skip the author's note... **

**I'm not sure if I want to kill Sweets or not. He spends all this effort trying to get Booth to admit that he's not over Brennan after years of trying to convince both of them they are in love, and then pushed Booth to propose to Hannah! What the h3ll? He's worse than Daisy who pushed Brennan to go to Indonesia! She didn't know Booth would find someone else (still blame her somewhat, but whatever...). Sweets should know the consequences of bringing up marriage with Booth. He's been his therapist for how many years? The only reason I'm not absolutely freaking out, is because I think that next week is the Valentine's Day episode that they've been giving us some spoilers for. The one where they end up together alone.  
****I was, however, super happy that Brennan asked Booth what happened when someone missed their chance with their love. And Booth said that they'll still be there in the end. (Just another reason B/H won't last much longer- My money is that they won't last next episode; but what do I know?) Oh! and I was happy we got to see more Paul/Cam. :)**

**Thanks for letting me rant...**

**Anyway, normal disclaimers apply.**

* * *

They sat around the table, all eating the breakfast Dani, Hodgins, and Angela had brought back. Brennan who was not very hungry mostly shuffled her food around on her plate. But she mostly kept her eyes on Booth. She knew that Booth was in the process of informing her of something important before everybody returned with food, and she was very interested to know what he was going to tell her. Normally, she would have a hypothesis about what he would say, but this time was different. Her head and heart were battling over the unsaid words.

Her heart was screaming that he was going to break up with Hannah and try to give them another chance. But her ever rational mind was telling her that Booth wouldn't do that to Hannah. He loved her. And he had already rejected her; why give up a successful relationship for one without certainties? It wasn't logical. _Since when is he logical?_ Brennan's hopeful heart reminded her. _Booth is the gut and heart guy. He will listen to them before his brain, metaphorically speaking since body parts cannot talk._

Angela's voice brought her back to reality. "So, why are you up so early, G-Man? You must have been driving all night to get her when you did."

"It was worth it," he answered.

"Sniper hearing wake you up?" Hodgins guessed.

Booth sent daggers in Hodgins' direction. He was never happy with his past being brought up. The scientist got the message.

"You were a sniper?" Dani asked interestedly.

"Yeah. For the army." Dani must have understood he didn't like to talk about it, because the conversation was stopped there.

They all sat there, quietly chewing her food for another few minutes.

Booth broke the silence by answering Angela's original question, "My phone woke me up."

"Who calls at seven in the morning?"

"Hannah." Those two syllables shut everyone up.

"Kinda earlier for a good morning call, isn't it?" Dani questioned.

"It was ten o'clock in Washington. So, no." It then dawned on Brennan that the unusually conversation she had eavesdropped on that morning was with Hannah- not that it clarified the conversation at all. She almost asked Booth about what the conversation was about, but realized that it was probably personal. He might not always honor 'what goes on between us is ours' but she would continue try to.

Luckily, Angela was more prying than Brennan. "How's she doing? She must be lonely without you there."

"She's managing." Booth's tone was flat, and he acted as though he would rather be talking about anything else. Brennan was finding his reactions odd when it came to Hannah.

"What does she do?" the other non-squint asked Booth.

"She's a reporter."

"For who?"

"Washington Post," the three squints answered.

"New York Times," the agent answered. Every head in the room whipped towards him. And for Brennan, everything fell into place. Booth and Hannah had broken up. The awkward phone call was a goodbye conversation. That would also explain why he told her about loving her. But why didn't he tell anyone else about his relationship's demise?

That didn't matter right now, though. Since Booth was sitting on her right, she grabbed his left hand. He looked towards her and gave a weak smile.

"When?" Angela asked, her voice full of concern. She must have figured it out too.

"Last week. I didn't want to tell everyone until after we found Bones." He looked directly into his partner's blue eyes as he told them. He almost whispered the last part, "I was going to tell you this morning, Bones."

The anthropologist squeezed his hand, wishing it would take some of his pain away and give him some of the excess joy that was bubbling inside of her. She knew she shouldn't be as joyful as she was about her best friend's break-up, but she couldn't help it. "I'm sorry, Booth," she whispered back. She knew how much he cared for Hannah. And Hannah was a kind person; Brennan had found herself considering the reporter a friend, even with all of these feelings for Booth.

"Me, too, man," Hodgins responded. Angela nodded, and Dani gave a sympathetic smile.

"If it's all right with you guys, I'd rather not talk about it." Brennan wasn't surprised at Booth's reaction, at all. He had always tried to keep some space between his personal and work life. The only reason he had ever started mixing the two was because of their friendship.

The breakfast was mostly silent after that.

An hour later, Brennan watched as Booth went outside for the second time that morning. He was wandering and pondering along the side of the road. Brennan watched his movements trying to figure out his mental state. She was so concentrated on him, in fact, she didn't hear Angela and Dani come up behind her.

"You okay, Brennan?" Dani asked. The anthropologist turned around startled.

She simply nodded.

"No, you're not," Angela stated. "Something's bothering you."

Sometimes, Brennan hated having such a socially aware friend. "It's nothing."

The other two women shared an unconvinced look. "It's about Booth."

"I did not say that."

"You're watching him wonder around in the desert," Dani pointed out. "It's pretty obvious."

Brennan sighed. Their accusations weren't very far from the truth. In the past twenty- four hours, a lot of what she knew about Seeley Booth's relationship had been proven inaccurate. His decision to try to pursue a romantic relationship with her last year was not spontaneous, he had not loved Hannah (or at least not as much as he thought he did), and most importantly, he implied that he had been in love with her for at least two years.

But despite that, he had tried to distance himself from her in the past several months. Her best friends with whom she had feelings on some level for since their first case together, had tried to avoid her presence to a certain degree. He had broken her heart to be with Hannah, and then told Hannah about her moment of weakness. And she knew that she had not recovered all of her memories, so there might be more. (Though, if she were to trust her gut, she would guess there was not.)

"I'm trying to understand what Booth is going through and needs from me, right now."

"A friend," Dani said instantly.

"Bren, you're his best friend. And he just got out of serious relationship."

"I know. But does he want the relationship we used to have or the one that he tried to start before I left for Indonesia? Or is there another one in between he'd prefer."

"Honestly, I think right now, he's probably wondering the same thing you are."

Brennan turned her attention towards Angela. "He doesn't know what he wants?"

"No, he doesn't know what _you_ want," Dani clarified.

"Sweetie, you do realize that you're the reason he broke up with Hannah, right?"

Though, she hadn't really thought about the reason Booth and Hannah's relationship ended, her being a factor did make sense. But all of the blame could not fall on her, could it? "While I admit I probably did not help the relationship as much as I could have-"

"Don't go clinical here," Angela told her. "You and Booth have feelings for each other. Anyone with eyes can see that. And once he knew that you had feelings for him, I'd bet Hodgins' fortune that began feeling at least a little guilty about seeing Hannah."

"He probably tried to easy the guilt some way, too," Dani added. "My ex did some stupid stuff. Always would tell me so he'd feel better."

"Booth told Hannah about us. I mean, what I said to him about making a mistake. Is that what you mean?"

Angela smiled, "Exactly."

"But by telling her, he betrayed my trust."

"You know he didn't mean it that way."

"I know," she sighed.

"Just listen to your heart," Dani told her. "Even though sounds unbelievably corny."

Soon after, Brennan was left alone with the window and her mind. Relationships were one of the few things Brennan was not good at. Before Booth, she had only seen it as a way to satisfy her biological urges. But Booth, he saw relationships as ways to test the physics of the universe. You and this person share a connection. One that defied all logic. A connection that it crossed the boundaries of the physical world. And slowly made her believe it too.

He believed that when you were with that one person, your problems don't seem as bad as they did before. The person made you better, because they brought out the best in you. That he or she would always be there for you when you needed them to be. They knew you better than you knew yourself, sometimes; and never used that knowledge against you.

And in return, you would rather suffer silently and watch them be happy than ruin their one chance for true happiness. You would do or risk anything for them, despite the consequences. You would never give up on them or their abilities, even if all evidence pointed towards their failure. That you had faith in them.

As much as she may have denied it to her friends over the past twenty- four hours, the world renowned anthropologist and author that saw neither rhyme nor reason in something as unreliable as love, Dr. Temperance Brennan, knew that she was in love with her partner. And now there was nothing that stood between them.

Except the fear of taking that risk.

* * *

**So, what did you all think?**


	16. Dead Man on the Couch

**Normal disclaimers apply.

* * *

**

The day passed quickly for Brennan after that. Dani went over to Ben's to welcome him home, since Booth had called off the search for Bones after breakfast. And Angela and Hodgins went out to look around town; though Brennan was pretty sure her friends (Angela especially) were trying to give her and Booth space.

She and Booth spent most of the time in each other's presence, having conversations flow naturally between them. It felt like it had before Hannah, their seven months apart, or even Booth's confession. Though neither of them would vocalize such things.

By ten o'clock that night, everyone was in bed. Dani had borrowed another cot from her brother while she was visiting him, though the couch was more comfortable than the second mattress. So, Brennan was taking the couch, Booth the same cot as before, and Dani would be sleeping on her bedroom floor because there was not enough room in the living room with Brennan and Booth.

Brennan had barely gotten onto the couch when Booth's snores began to echo through the room. She couldn't help but smile. She was lulled to sleep by his gentle snoring.

_**She was sitting in a room that felt unnervingly sterile. Her chair provided no lumbar support, nor was the lack of cushioning comfortable. But she didn't care. Right now, she was just worried.**_

_**She stared at the wooden floor, not willing to look at the other occupants of the room. Angela was sitting across from her in Hodgins' arms. He was trying to comfort his fiancée from whatever horror brought them here. Zack was awkwardly reading through one of the magazines the hospital provided. Cam was leaning against a wall, staring across the room at nothing. Sweets was a couple chairs away from Brennan, looking very distraught. She wondered what an on looker would notice about her. Probably a blank face, because she refused to show how emotional she was. She had always been able to keep her feelings in check; it was a necessity in the foster system. But right now, she was having a very difficult time. **_

_**Finally, a middle aged surgeon came through the double doors. He had blood on his scrubs. He had **_**his**_** blood soaking through his scrubs. The thought alone made Brennan want to vomit; but she could withhold it. She had to withhold it. She felt the tears begin to burn her eyes, and tried desperately to push them away. She might not be able to read people very well, but she could see the distress in the doctor's motions. **_**Don't jump to conclusions,**_** she reminded herself. She refused to think the worse until evidence conclusively indicated otherwise. Plus, he had never lied to her; and he had promised to never leave her. Dying would be considered leaving, right?**_

"_**Are you the family of Seeley Booth?"**_

"_**Yes." Maybe not in the technical sense of the word, but the he had taught her there was more than one kind of family. And the lab was one of them.**_

"_**I'm sorry to tell you this, but we couldn't save him." All hope that she held on to evaporated in an instant. Brennan felt like her heart drop into her stomach. The tears that had burned her eyes before were now threatening to flow over. She blinked them away, hoping they would not return. At least not this moment.**_

_**Angela turned into Hodgins' shoulder and began to sob, much like Brennan felt like doing. Hodgins' eyes were glazing over as he held on to Angela tighter. Cam had tears rolling down her face. Zack looked like he was in shock, and trying to figure out the probability that this was a horrible nightmare. And Sweets just looked like someone had just killed his older brother or father.**_

_**The doctor continued, "The bullet caused too much damage. We did everything we could to save him, but it was all in God's hands."**_

_**God. A supreme being that Booth faithfully worshiped. One that he believed would always protect him and those he loved. It looked like logic was correct and faith was wrong.**_

_**The rest of the doctor's explanation of what happened was a blur to Brennan. She was thinking back to the past three years. For three years, he had been entangled in her life- four if she considered their first case. In the beginning, she had fought to get rid of him, but as time progressed his presence became welcomed and expected. She remembered when meeting him for the first time, him firing her and the rest of the lab only to have her remind him they could then have sex (though they never made it that far), her black mailing him into letting her work in the field with him, the first Christmas they spent together and meeting Parker for the first time, Kenton, their guy hugs, how he stood by her every step of her mother's case, how he helped her find her father, and was there when she watched her family drive away without her yet again. She remembered their case in Las Vegas and the one on Halloween; she could recall their Christmas kiss and almost every after case celebration the two of them had held. She remembered how when she tried to incriminate herself on her father's behalf, he swore that it was impossible for her to have viciously murdered anyone.**_

_**She was brought back to the hospital room by a friendly hand on her shoulder. She looked up to see Cam standing over her. The tears were still falling off her friend's face. "Dr. Brennan, we should go. It's been an emotional day."**_

_**Brennan simply nodded, though she wanted to argue that there must have been some sort of mix up. That Booth wasn't dead. "I'll call a cab."**_

_**Five minutes and five friends' protests later, she was standing outside of the hospital waiting for the taxi. She still would not allow herself to cry. She finally allowed herself to ask the one question that had been in the back of her mind since earlier that evening. **_**Why did you take that bullet, Booth? I would have taken it. You have Parker! He deserves a father. He loves you. What were you thinking? That's the problem, you probably weren't thinking. You probably just reacted. You have a large family who loves you. You shouldn't have risked your life like that. **_**Brennan continued to talk to Booth in her head. As long as she did that, then he wasn't dead. Just being an idiotic alpha- male.**_

_**Brennan was so lost in thought, she didn't even realize that she had gotten into the cab and been driven home. She was only aware she wasn't in front of the hospital when she stood outside of her front door. She unlocked her door and walked in. Once she was behind closed doors, she allowed herself to shed tears. She moved directly towards the bathroom. The moment she was in there, she turned on the water. And then, she looked in the mirror for the first time since Pam Nunan had shot the gun.**_

_**She was covered in blood. It was everywhere. On her shirt, on her jeans, on her skin. She hadn't realized how much was on her until that moment. And whatever was on her was not in Booth's body. And suddenly, it truly sunk in. Booth had taken a bullet for her. Booth was dead.**_

_**Brennan lost all control of her body. Her legs gave out and fell against her shower wall. Her body began to shake, letting out painful whimpers. Tears flowed down her cheeks at an alarmingly fast rate. **_**Booth is dead. He died taking a bullet for **_**me, she thought.**_** I tried to save him, but my best wasn't enough. He saved my life, and I couldn't do the same for him. He should have lived. He has a family, friends, and many people who care about him.**_** She slowly sank lower against her shower, still completely clothed. The hot water burned her skin, but she didn't even notice. Compared to the pain she felt from losing Booth, it was nothing.**_

"_**Damn it, Booth!" she muttered. "Why did you have to do something as stupid as step in front of a bullet? Why do you always have to be an alpha-male? I would have been fine. But you had to go and get yourself killed! You promised me that you would never leave me!" She was now screaming at the invisible ghost of her partner. Her cries over took her body. The only word her lips would release was her now dead partner's name.**_

Brennan woke up, and felt several hot tears crawling down her face. All the pain from her dream came crashing back down on her, and she felt her heart crush into thousands of pieces. The one person in the world who had always been there for her was dead. She was alone. The tears were accompanied, then, by a choked cry.

"Come on, Bones. Wake up, it's just a dream. Everything is okay. Calm down, baby. It will be okay." The whispers floated into Brennan ear. She noticed that she was not laying down, but sitting up . Actually, she was being propped up by two warm and comfortable arms and leaning against a chest being rocked back and forth. And then there were small circles being drawn on her back.

"Booth?" she dared to ask.

"I'm here, Bones," he promised. "Everything's okay." He laid a gentle kiss on her head. And suddenly she it became apparent to her that it was all a dream. Booth was there with her. He didn't die. She could hear his heart beat.

She flung her arms around him and buried her head into his neck and breathed in his scent. The tears began to subside and the joyous energy flowed through her. She was thankful that it wasn't a memory for a change. Just a dream. "You're alive."

"Of course, I'm alive. Everything's okay."

She tightened her grip on him. He was always there when she needed him to be.

After a while, Booth asked into her ear, "Do you want to talk about your dream?"

"It seemed so real. I thought it was another memory when I first woke up."

"You've been dreaming your memories?" Apparently she hadn't mentioned that detail to him.

She nodded into his shoulder. "Until Angela and Hodgins came, that was the only way my mind recalled my past."

"So, this was your first actual dream?"

She nodded again.

"I'm sorry it was bad, babe. You shouldn't have to deal with that in addition to everything else."

"Neither should you."

He gave her a comforting squeeze silently telling everything was alright. They sat there for a moment, taking in the feeling of the other's embrace.

"Booth, will you promise me something?" She needed to know that her dream would never happen. If he died protecting her, she was not sure she could handle the emotional distress.

"What?"

"You'll never take a bullet for me." He pulled back from her looking her in the eyes. She saw some confusion and anxiety in the chocolate brown pools.

"I won't promise you that. I can't promise you that. If something bad is going to happen to you, and I have the power to stop it, I will. Even if that means taking a bullet for you."

"You have a family. And a son who loves you. I don't want you to leave him because of me." Tears were flowing once again.

"Temperance," Booth voice held much concern, "is this because of your dream?"

"You were dead. And it was my fault." She looked towards the floor trying to avoid his eyes.

"Hey, look at me," he told her, pulling her head upwards until their eyes met. "If something ever happens to me, it won't be your fault."

"In my dream you took a bullet for me. It killed you. I don't want you to risk your life for me like that."

"I've done it before. And if I need to, I will again."

"It didn't kill you though. But if you do it again, it might."

Booth closed his eyes. "I think I know what happened."

"In my dream? You're ability to read people is impressive, but I doubt you can read my mind."

"Damn it, I didn't think we'd ever have to talk about this again," he muttered more to himself than to her. "What do you remember from right before we found out about Zack being Gordanazo's assistant?"

"Gormagon," she corrected. "And my father's trial was right before that."

He shook his head. "Three weeks between. And we had a case during the first week. It was a pretty standard case, except for one of the suspects. Sweets told us that she was dangerous, but we laughed at him. She was psychotic and obsessive, but we didn't think she was really that dangerous. We solved the case, like always, and it wasn't her. But during the case she got kinda obsessed with me. I tried to put distance between me and her; and I thought it had worked. But after we closed the case, I dragged you to a karaoke bar. You were singing 'Girls Just Wanna Have Fun' and everyone was looking at you. I don't know how long she was standing there, but I heard her say my name. And that's when I saw she had a gun pointing at you. I reacted, and took the bullet. I blacked out with you standing over me. When I woke up a few hours later, my boss was standing over me. He told me that I needed to pretend to be dead to catch another criminal. I agreed and gave them a list of people to make sure know I wasn't dead. Four names were on that list. Parker, Pops, Jared, and you. So for two weeks, I was a dead man walking. And then my funeral came. I was there to catch the guy. And I did, but me and him got into a fist fight. My disguise fell off. Long story short, you helped me arrest him and then punched me for being alive. Turns out Sweets failed to mention to you that I was dead. You were still mad at me, but understood why Sweets did it. I don't get it, so it must be a doctor thing, but that's beside the point. And then right after that we began to suspect that someone in the lab was in cahoots with the psycho, cannibalistic serial killer. And you remember it from there."

She slowly digested the information. He had died after taking a bullet for her. He had saved her life by risking his own. It wasn't a dream, just another memory. That would explain the intense emotions that the 'dream' brought up. But that also meant he had left her for two weeks. Why hadn't he told her directly that he was still alive? Didn't he trust her? The bureau would not have told her until after his immediate family, which meant she would not have known for a couple of days. He was willing to let her think he was dead for that long?

"Why didn't you tell me you were still alive?"

"Not this again," he murmured. "It's Sweets' fault you weren't told. I'm truly sorry he didn't; I was just following protocol. I promise, if I ever pretend to die again, I will personally tell you." To Brennan, it sounded like they must have gone through this on more than one occasion.

"What was Sweets' reasoning?" she asked suddenly.

"Something about you being able to handle it. Though, I gotta say Bones, I'm not sure you were handling it as well as you thought." Brennan barely registered his last sentence as another memory floated over her.

_**She was on her way to the basement at the lab. Booth and Cam were ahead of her, while Sweets trailed behind. The thought of the psychologist made her incredibly enraged. How dare he not tell her Booth was alive. He had been there from the time that Booth was shot until they were forced to leave the hospital. And then he had been questioning her ever since that horrible night. It was like he was- The thought of what he had done increased her rage significantly. She quickly contemplating telling Booth, but he would kill Sweets. Though, right now, that didn't seem so bad. **_

_**She made sure Booth and Cam were out of earshot, before turning on the young man. "You think I don't recognize an experiment when I see one? You experimented on us."**_

_**An emotion that Brennan was not quite sure of flashed upon his face. "Beg your pardon."**_

_**How could he think she was that naïve? She was a world renowned forensic anthropologist. A true scientist. Unlike him, who toyed with people to see how they would react. "Not telling me Booth was alive? You wanted to qualify our reactions to furthering your own research? You took advantage of us. Booth and I agreed to let you observe us. We did not agree to be used as lab rats, so you better cut it out," she told him in a hurry. Booth would begin to wonder where they were if they weren't down there soon.**_

"_**Dr. Brennan, why are you talking so fast?"**_

"_**Because if Booth hears why you did what you did, he'd beat you up," she answered as if it were as clear as day, which it was. Booth was always very protective of her and their partnership. **_

"_**Don't you think that'd be an overly aggressive act?" The thought of slugging Sweets herself (as Booth had asked her to upstairs) floated through her mind.**_

"_**Not at all. So you better not do it again." A terrified look flashed over Sweets' face, causing a small amount of joy to rise within Brennan.**_

"Bones. Earth to Bones." Brennan realized that Booth was talking to her.

"Sorry, what?"

"You zoned out there for a second. Everything okay?"

"Yes. I was just remembering my logic for not hitting Sweets."

"So, you can explain it to me, now?" Booth looked a little hopeful. He'd probably been wondering why she hadn't hurt the boy before. She had a feeling that he would probably still go hurt Sweets if she told him.

"It wouldn't have been professional."

"You slugged me!" he pointed out.

"In anger."

"You weren't angry at him?"

"If I had punched him, he would have assumed that it was out of vengeance for not telling me about you."

"Instead of…?"

"Experimenting on us." Surely she had told him of their conversation at some point since then.

"He did what?" Or not.

"Don't worry about it, Booth," she told him with a yawn. She looked towards the clock. It was about three- ten in the morning, and they were both tired. She could still see the heavy bags under his eyes. "We should get back to sleep."

"Yeah, probably." Despite his words, Booth didn't move from the embrace. Instead, he propped his feet on the coffee table and stretched out. He pulled Brennan a little closer to him the process.

"I'll be right here in case you have another nightmare/ memory thing."

Brennan wanted to argue she would be fine, but his arms were much to comfortable, so she simply nodded. By three-fourteen, they were asleep in each other's arms.


	17. Insights from Bug Boy

**So, there are only a couple more chapters before the story is done. I have them mostly completely; just a little editing here and there. So, I'm going to try to post a chapter once a day from now on for this story. I hope you guys like this chapter!**

**Oh, and thank you horseninja and jjrobinson73 for reviewing! :)**

**Normal disclaimers apply.**

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Bliss. That was the only word Brennan could come up with as she awoke from her dreamless sleep. It was an unusually way for her to wake up; she had come to realize that she was normally aware as soon as she awake. But this morning she gradually woke up. And she couldn't recall ever waking up with such an amazing feeling. She moved as close as she could to the source of the pleasure in her half- asleep state. It was strong, warm, comfortable, and familiar. She opened her eyes and quickly realized why it was so well-known; it was Booth. All sleepiness disappeared as she became alert as to where she was. Luckily, the memories from last night floated through her mind, causing her to relax somewhat. At least until she remembered Booth's death from several years ago.

She knew that it had occurred years ago, but the memory was still fresh and painful. She needed to compartmentalize, but as she tried her attention kept falling back to her slumbering partner. It didn't take long for her to realize that she would not be able to sort out her feelings while being so close to Booth. So, she maneuvered her way out of the warm and comfort of his arms and went to make coffee.

As she turned to the kitchen, she saw Hodgins sitting there reading the newspaper from the previous day. He had a cup of coffee in front of him, and seemed oblivious to Brennan. At least until he looked up. He greeted her in a quiet voice, "Morning, Dr. B."

"Good morning." She poured herself some coffee before joining her friend at the table.

"Want part of the paper?" he offered, as he handed her the national and world news section.

"Thank you." They sat there for a moment, Brennan scanning the article headlines.

"So, you and Booth have fun last night?" Hodgins asked with a smirk on his face, his eyes never leaving the paper.

Brennan's head, however, shot up. "What are you implying, Dr. Hodgins?"

"Nothing. I just know when Angela and I went to bed last night, you were on the couch and Booth was on the floor. I came out this morning to find you asleep against his chest."

Brennan glared at him before answering, "I recalled a painful memory last night and accidentally woke Booth up in the midst of it. He woke me up and helped me calm down until we both fell asleep."

Hodgins' grin disappeared and he looked up. "Oh, it seriously was nothing. Well, that's Booth for you. He's also had your back."

"We didn't exactly get along on our first case. Remember? He would not have-"

"Dr. B," he laughed, "the first time I saw him, he was ushering you out of your office with his hand on your back. And he's always been right where you need him to be."

"He wasn't there when he forgot to mention that his death was fake."

"And man, did you make him suffer for that one. He was trying to convince you how sorry he was for months. I think that's part of the reason he went to England with you. Show you he wasn't really ever going to leave."

Brennan had given Booth a hard enough time when she first found out he had faked his death? She silently sighed, knowing she should have surmised she would have. So, why should he have to go through it again just because it was new information to her? And it wasn't like she had not ever hurt him. The night outside of the Hoover building immediately came to mind. And the fact that she had been missing for two weeks because she misunderstood his conversation with Cam's boyfriend.

"Thank you."

"For what?" Hodgins asked.

"I know the events of that summer, but not the details. Your perception on that time has given me a more lucid idea of what happened."

"If you say so," Hodgins smiled. Brennan began to read the paper again and assumed he did to. However when she went to turn the page, she noticed that his attention was not focused at the tabloid in front of him.

"Why are you staring at the wall?"

"What? Oh, I was just thinking, what exactly is going on between you and Booth? I mean, he tells you he loves you but you turn him down, then you two go to opposite sides of the world for seven months, he comes back with a girlfriend, then you tell him you love him and he turns you down, you disappear for two weeks and he breaks up with his girlfriend. So the only thing that seems to have changed in the past year is that you both have admitted you're in love with each other."

Brennan was once again speechless. She knew the events of the past year, but to have it laid out so directly in front of her was almost a shock. Yes, she had concluded Booth was in love with her. Yes, she knew she was in love with him, too. So, logically, the next step would be for them to pursue a relationship together; a thought that both simultaneously excited and terrified her.

"We haven't really discussed it. Booth will probably want some time to get around his break up with Hannah, but I would like to start a sexual relationship with him at some point. Though, right now I am worried about what the consequences of that type of relationship would be."

"Who cares about the consequences? Love isn't about what can go wrong; it's about what can go right. Look at me and Angie. We tried to plan a sporadic wedding, only to find she was already married; we tried to find the guy which eventually caused us to break up; she dated the only intern I consider a friend and thought she was going to have _his _kid; and then we ended up deciding to get married when we were trapped in a jail together on pretty bogus charges. Until we got married, every time we tried to change our relationship something went wrong, but it ended up working out. And so will you and Booth."

"But you and Angela are both spontaneous people. I'm not."

"Then you have to have a little faith."

"Faith is an irrational belief in something that is logically impossible."

Hodgins laughed under his breath, before replying "Yeah, but you already have faith in Booth. Why not a relationship with him?"

Brennan opened her mouth, but quickly shut it. She did have faith in Booth. And she wanted a relationship with him eventually. She quickly determined Hodgins was right.

"Plus, no one is going to be stupid enough to try to stop you guys. Besides the fact you two have been in love for years and just too blind to see it, everyone's waiting for you guys to get together. I mean the lab had a pool going on when you two would get together before everyone left for a year, and according to Sweets the FBI had another one."

"You made bets on our relationship?" Brennan wasn't sure if she should be amused or enraged.

By his facial expressions, she could tell he didn't mean to let that slip. "No."

The anthropologist gave him a skeptic look.

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**Okay, so I feel like Brennan and Hodgins are fairly good friends ****and ****we see enough of their friendship on the show... hence the chapter.**** I mean they've got the whole stuck underground togethre thing and they both are like super squints. I think they're probably too of the most similar characters in the show. **

**Anyway, what did you all think of the chapter? **


	18. The Overdue Talk

**Here's the chapter you've all been waiting for. Originally this was supposed to be two chapters, but it kind of flowed together. So now you have a long chapter. Though, after this, though there's just the epilogue.**

**Normal disclaimers apply.**

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The uneventful morning passed rather quickly. Dani woke up about forty- five minutes after Brennan and Hodgins' conversation ended; and Angela trailed her by an hour. Booth woke up around thirty minutes after the artist to the sound of their voices. The people in the house had small conversations, as to avoid awkward silence, but nothing of value was really said, which allowed Brennan time to think.

She had been gone from her life for over two weeks and wanted to get back to work soon. She needed to meet with her father and Russ to assure them that she was fine; she needed to finish the next chapter of her book for her publisher; she would also like to see Parker to see how he's doing. Plus, she felt as though she was dependent on everyone while she was there. They all looked after her as though she was disabled. And anyone who knew Dr. Temperance Brennan knew that she was a _not_ an invalid. And since she woke up, it felt as though everyone had forgotten that and was afraid to leave her alone. She had been able to depend on herself since she was fifteen years old.

As lunch approached, Brennan decided to make macaroni and cheese for everyone, since she still had some idea how to make it and it was a simple meal. Plus, Brennan needed to talk to everyone. Booth was very pleased by the idea of the meal. "Bones, you make the best Mac-and-Cheese!" He reminded her of that fact several times, especially once she began to actually cook. For some reason, his compliments always made her smile.

When the awaited meal (at least on Booth's part) was ready, and everyone was sitting with it on their plate, Brennan decided it would be a good time to discuss returning to Washington.

"I believe we need to discuss returning to Washington." All the heads in the room turned to her.

"What?"

"I've been here for a couple of weeks, and I believe sometime soon we should go back to Washington."

"Are you sure? You haven't even been awake for a full week. And you're welcome to stay here for as long as you want." Dani's eyes held concern, as did her voice.

"Yeah, you really don't want to stress yourself, Sweetie. You're still recovering."

"I'm fine, Angela. And I believe that it would benefit me more to return to Washington and continue a normal life."

"Because being an overworked-forensic anthropologist-working-with-the-FBI-to-solve-murders-slash-New York Times Best Selling-author is a normal life."

"For me, it is. And I can't impose on you for much longer, Dani. You took in a hurt woman, not her and three friends."

"Dr. B, Angela and I were coming here before we knew you were staying here," Hodgins pointed out.

"Yes, but you would have only been here one night. Actually you would not have come at all, except I decided to go on the dig." Brennan still felt the guilt from causing all of her friends' trouble. If she hadn't gone on the dig… _Well, there's no point thinking about it now,_ her rational mind pointed out. _You cannot change the past._

"Well, if you hadn't come out here I wouldn't have seen Angie again or met any of you," Dani interrupted her thought with a more optimistic view.

"And while I'm very happy we met, even under less than ideal circumstances, I don't want to inconvenience you more than I already have."

"Seriously, it's not that much trouble. It's kind of nice not having an empty house."

Brennan realized that she was quickly losing the conversation. She honestly thought that everyone would be okay with returning home. She did have to admit though, that her state of health had slipped her mind.

"I'm also sure that there are cases that require our attention-"

"And that's exactly what you don't need. Sweetie, the moment you get back to the lab, you'll start working nineteen hour a days, seven days a week like you were right before you left. _That_ won't help you. At least out here, you can't work so much."

Brennan knew that Angela wasn't going to change her mind on this. Maybe over the couple of days she would be able to show her friend that she was ready to return to her (as they deemed) stressful life. "Fine."

Brennan dropped the subject, and let the conversation flow from her friends. Angela and Dani began to tell them everyone else about the people of the town. Hodgins shared some stories from his own childhood that were similar to those of the local town. The three of them carried on most of the lunch conversation.

After lunch, Dani volunteered to do the dishes. Angela and Hodgins decided to see what was on television. Since Brennan had no desire to watch the screen, she made up her mind to go outside. She grabbed some water and went outside. She decided to follow the same path she did only days before when she went outside alone. As she walked, she felt the heat bearing down on her more than she expected. She noticed that only a few meters away was a large grove. A shaded grove. She went and took comfort in the cool shadows of the plant. She closed her eyes for what felt like moment. She was debating opening her eyes and returning to her friends, when she felt an additional silhouette fall over her, and a calm voice said a single word. "Bones."

Brennan opened her eyes to find Booth's chocolate pools falling upon her. "Hey."

The agent slowly moved his way to sit next to Brennan, and she complied by giving him some room in the shade. Though she felt as though her skin was boiling in the desert heat, the warmth that radiated off him was so comforting she didn't mind the mere inches between them. She felt him relax next to her and did the same.

After a moment passed, Booth softly asked, "You wanna tell me the real reason you wanna go back to Washington?"

Brennan couldn't help but let a slight smile graze her lips. She and Booth had barely had a personal conversation in most likely months, and yet he could still tell when something was bothering her. Her smile quickly slipped away, as she realized he had not caught all the times since returning that he had missed her heartbreak. "Like I said, Booth, I want to get back to the lab."

"Maybe, but that's not the main reason."

"I also would like to see Max and Russ. And I would like to know how Cam is doing, too."

"Yeah, but you could do that over the phone. And you haven't tried to borrow anyone's phone to call them." Brennan silently cursed his ability to read her so well. She didn't know how to answer without opening herself up to him again, so she chose not answer.

It only took a few seconds for Booth to realize that Brennan was not going to give him the real reason. Thus, he changed the topic. "So, Angela said that you've been working more. How long has that been going on?"

Brennan sighed. Angela's comment had barely registered over lunch, but she should have known Booth would catch it. He thought she was a workaholic before hand, and she had increased her hours somewhat over the past several months. She had rediscovered that when she worked, the pain of the outside world did not hurt as much. Rejection did not hurt as much.

"I don't know. You know how often I get caught up in my work."

"Yeah, but one a hundred fourteen hour week is way too much. Even for you. In all the time I've known you, you've never worked that much unless there was a huge case like Epps or Taffett. And that was only for short amounts of times."

"It's nothing. I've just been trying to catch up on cases from bone storage. I'm still behind from taking seven months off." Brennan knew she could not tell him that he was the reason she had spent so much extra time over a metal table studying how a person lived by the markers on their bones. He would blame himself, and it was her own problems that kept her in the lab into the early morning hours.

Of course, he had always been able to see what she hiding. "You started working to get away from the real world, didn't you?" Her silence answered him. "Bones, you started to work more after that night."

_That night. _There was no questioning which night he was referring to. The one where she opened herself more than she had in over seventeen years and he refused her. Brennan recognized his facial expression as guilt immediately. He had figured it out, and he was taking it just as she expected. And she couldn't lie to him. Not about this. Part of her was somewhat happy he could feel a fraction of what she had been for months, but most of her just sympathized with him.

"It's not your fault. You did exactly what you said you would. You moved on and I just missed my chance."

"No, you didn't. I'm the one who screwed up. I screwed up everything. I asked you to give us a chance before you were ready, and then I let you run away for what was supposed to be a year. And I did the one thing I swore I would never do. I left you."

"You didn't leave me! If anything, I left you." She had brought up the idea of going to Indonesia before the army had even contacted him.

"No, you were waiting for me when we came back. It should have been the other way around. It's just… When I was in Afghanistan, I was trying to do exactly what you were when you locked yourself up in the lab. I just didn't realize how much I would hurt you in the process. God, if I had any idea how much I was hurting you, I would have tried to fix it a long time ago. Because as hard as it is to believe with everything that's been going on lately, you're my one. You're my other half. And I've done a crappy job of showing you that since we got back."

Brennan sat there for a moment, trying to wrap her mind around what he had just said. She knew since she had gone missing and he had broken up with Hannah he had not only taken interest in her romantically again, but begun to claim he loved her. But she had heard him claim his love for Hannah, and that had not ended in the Catholic marriage he had been raised to want. But he never once said anything about her being his 'one'. Maybe, Brennan was misunderstanding what he meant. It would not be the first time in the past few days.

"Your one?"

"Yeah, Bones. You're my one. You probably don't remember this, but few years ago, you told me about the Greek idea about soul mates. You said that humans were originally two people stuck together, but Zeus was afraid people would over power him. So, he split them up. Well, you're my other half; I know I haven't shown it, lately, but you are."

Brennan remembered that conversation. It was right before he had told her he wanted to give them a chance and she had turned him down out of fear. She still regretted that night outside of the Hoover building that occurred almost exactly one week later. But it had caused the series of events that led her to discover her true feelings for Booth. It had caused her to face the fact that love was real and she was in it with Booth. She had been since that night outside of the Hoover building. Being who she was, she tried to pin point the time when her platonic feelings had been transformed into love; the closed she could find was when he took the bullet for her at the Checker Box. If only she had known it sooner.

But yet, here they were almost a year later, in a very similar position. Booth was opening up the idea of a relationship to them, and it was up to her to take the plunge with Booth in faith.

"Plato's idea of humans being separated by Zeus has no truth behind it. We know how we evolved; how we've changed over time. Because of my parents leaving me, I thought that love was a fairy-tale with little basis in reality. That people were merely acting on chemicals released in their brains. But the truth is that those chemicals are what create love, just as fear is caused by an increase in activity in the amygdala section of the brain and pleasure comes from a mixture of the two. I have always accepted fear and pleasure without question, so it is not rational to exclude love from a viable emotion. And we tend to love those who we share an attachment to. And we have become attached in almost every sense of the word. Therefore, while I do not believe that you are my missing half because that is physically impossible, I will admit that you are the only man I have ever been in love with and the only man I ever want to be in love with."

Brennan tried to gauge Booth's reaction. He sat there with a fairly stunned look on his face, and she didn't know for the life of her whether this was a positive or negative thing. Rationally, he should be pleased since he also admitted his love for her. But she continued to have this fear that she had misinterpreted his words somehow. Another thought occurred to her that he might be having a reaction to the heat, though that did not make much sense since he had served in the desert at least twice for the army.

After what felt like hours of silence, she asked, "Booth, are okay?"

"Yeah, I'm just trying to figure out if the past three days have all been a dream or not."

"Why would they be?"

"Because not only have I found you but you admitted love was real _and_ you're in love with me."

"I told you before that I was open to the possibility of love."

"Yeah, the _possibility_. Not that you fully believed."

"Yes, over the past couple of years-" Her words were cut off by his lips pressing against hers. The kiss was innocent at first, both just savoring the feel of the other's lips. It was like a teenager's first kiss, though it was the fourth time their lips had met. But the chastity vanished after a mere moment. Brennan felt Booth's tongue run against her lower lip, begging for access, and she knew she could not refuse the offer. Suddenly, there tongues began to dual, both wanting dominance. This kiss went on for what seemed like hours and seconds, but ended when the need for oxygen became too great for either to withstand.

When the two separated, Brennan realized that his arm was around her waist and she was close enough to drop her head to his shoulder. Which is exactly what she did.

"That was amazing," he breathed. She nodded in agreement, not sure if she would speak yet. The kiss had been so much better than she remembered, and this time there was no fear of the future or pressure for it from a puckish prosecutor. The desires she had kept bottled up for the past year were now released, and their relationship changing once again.

"What we're doing is insane," she commented after another moment in the shade with her head on his shoulder.

"Two people being in love is always insane."

"But we're expecting a different outcome, and our luck after kissing has never been ideal."

"Maybe. But this time is different."

"I don't know what you mean."

"So far neither one of us is running out of the room or crying. I say that's a step in the right direction," he told her, before placing a kiss on her lips. Before she could respond however, he pulled away. "We should probably go back inside before they decide to send out a search party for us."

Brennan normally would have argued that her friends would not overreact that much, but knew a very hormonal Angela might do just that after Brennan's two week disappearance. Also, it was air conditioned within the small house.

She raised her head off Booth's shoulder and stood up. She turned towards Booth was standing beside her. He grabbed hand and brought up his lips, placing a lingering kiss on it. As one with two faces, four arms, and four legs, they moved not only towards the house but into their future.

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**So, did you all like it? The epilogue will be tomorrow. I wanted to get have the story posted by tomorrow nights episode.**


	19. Epilogue Revenge in the Head

**You guys are amazing! Thank you for sticking through this entire story, and reviewing. This is the first story I've ever had to get over a hundred reviews and you have no idea how excited that made me when I figured it out. Sadly, though, this is the end of the story.**

**I hope you guys enjoyed the story. Normal disclaimers apply.

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**

It had been three weeks since Booth and Brennan had allowed themselves to enter into a relationship, only two since they returned to Washington. She had finally been able to convince Angela that she was fine when she was able to outlast Angela during a girls' day out (at least Brennan thought that was what they were called). Brennan and Angela both promised to go visit Dani at least once per year, as long as she came to visit them just as often. Brennan had offered to do something to thank Dani for allowing everyone to stay at her small home, but the woman wouldn't hear of it. "You helped save my life; this is me repaying you," Dani had told her with a smile.

Once they returned to their home, the anthropologist had spent each day of the first week with those who her absence had stressed, such as her father and brother, Cam, Sweets, Angela, and Hodgins, even Parker and Hank. She didn't know how she was ever going to make it up to them for scaring them all as much as she did, but she thought spending time with each was a step in the correct direction. And when she wasn't trying to be social, she would attempt to work on identifying the skeletons in bone storage (though usually someone shooed her away within a couple hours of her arriving at the lab).

The second week, she had to go be examined by Sweets to see how she was handling herself emotionally. She would have preferred to skip the whole ordeal, but it was required so she could do field work again. Sweets had initially tried to treat as someone who had very little of his or her memories, which annoyed Brennan. She was able to stop him from treating her as such by reminding him of several key memories, such as his decision to keep Booth's state of life from her despite the agent's wishes and the time Booth and she accompanied Sweets on one of his dates. Those two memories alone had kept him quiet for at least ten minutes. Actually, most of the time was Sweets talking and Brennan offering as little information as she could possibly get away with. She actually surprised herself how well she managed to stay off the topic of Booth. After four days of sessions, he requested one final meeting with her and Booth before he would declare her fit for field work. Wanting to get to the lab before Booth came to pick her, she agreed in haste.

In spite of whatever her day time activities were, she returned to an apartment every night, though it varied between hers and Booth's. Though they were very eager to start their relationship (they had consummated their relationship their first night back in Washington), they also thought they needed to define their relationship without the opinions of pregnant, excited artist or nosey, twelve year old psychologist. One their way back to Dani's house on that day three weeks ago, they had decided to keep quiet about their relationship at first, and had not found the right time to tell everyone that they were a couple yet. And the fact that Brennan had determined by Sweets questioning that he was still oblivious to the fact that Booth and Hannah had broken up had complicated telling him during her forced sessions with him.

It was now the Thursday night before her final meeting with Sweets and she and Booth were eating take out from Wong Fu's.

"So, why do I have to go see Sweets tomorrow," Booth asked. "I thought I was done with being his patient."

"I don't know. He probably wants to see how we react around each other. It's probably another experiment of his."

"Yeah, we'll I still can't believe he experimented on us the first time. And no one bothered to tell me."

"Calm down, Booth. That was over three years ago."

"Yeah, but I only found out about it three weeks ago. How long did it take you to forgive him?"

"I don't remember a date."

"Exactly," he said as if his point was made.

"That makes no sense."

"Had you forgiven him by the time we went to England?"

"What? I don't remember. Besides, there is nothing that we could do about it now. Time only moves in one direction."

Brennan watched as a small smirk appeared on her lover's face. "Maybe. But we could get revenge." His smirk became a smile as they formulated a plan.

* * *

Booth and Brennan were sitting on Sweets' couch much as they had done for those two years with Sweets watching them like prey. But instead of the average space they put between them, they were about twice the distance they had been. They were separated by a good foot or two between them, though neither verbally acknowledged it.

"So, you're probably wondering why I asked you here, Agent Booth," Sweets started.

"Thought crossed my mind," Booth answered sarcastically.

Sweets sighed, but ignore the statement otherwise. "After talking to Dr. Brennan this past week, I thought it would be beneficial to talk to both of you at the same time."

"Why?" Brennan questioned.

"Because you seemed to avoid Booth as a topic this past week. Now, I thought that we should discuss how your relationship has changed since Dr. Brennan went missing."

Booth looked at his partner and shrugged. "Nothing's changed, Sweets. Bones has like 99% of her memory back, so nothing's had to change."

Brennan bit her lip and looked away, making sure Sweets saw. "Dr. Brennan, do you have something you would like to add?"

Booth looked to her confused, though he knew exactly what she was going to say. "No. Booth is right; I have come to remember most of my experiences."

"But something is still bothering you," Sweets told her. Booth looked to her for an answer.

"It's nothing. Only some odd things that I can't place in my life."

To say, Sweets looked shock would be an understatement. One, Brennan was admitting a problem that she and Booth had no discussed before entering. Two, she hadn't mentioned anything like this earlier in the week.

"What was that?"

Brennan had to withhold a smile. This had been her part of the plan; the part Booth was going to get somewhat red during. "I had several sexual memories that still am not positive when they occurred."

Sweets jaw dropped, and Booth just tried not to make eye contact. He poured himself a glass of water while the awkwardness set in. Brennan had to admit, he actually looked worried. "Well, maybe if you can remember who your partner for these, uh, memories are, then someone will know when you dated them."

"Or try and get Angela to draw them," Booth chimed in.

"That won't be necessary, Booth." Brennan waited until he took a sip of the water to say, "Actually, you could give me the dates."

The small amount of water Booth had just taken in sprayed all over Sweets. "Wait, what?"

"You're the sexual partner that I have memories of."

Sweets stopped and stared at her for a second. "Dr. Brennan, you and Agent Booth have never been involved romantical-"

Booth cut him off there. "You didn't ask me about this _before _we had another session with Sweets?"

"I didn't think it would be brought up," she answered as if it were nothing.

"You brought it up, Bones!"

"No, Sweets asked me what was bothering me. And I answered."

"We should not have this conversation in front of Sweets!"

"Wait, are you saying that you two have had sex?" Sweets asked in disbelief. Booth rubbed his face to hide the smile. Brennan somehow managed to keep a straight face.

"Sweets, it's complicated," Booth grumbled.

"Clearly," Sweets agreed. "How many times?"

"I dunno. How many times have you and Daisy done it. Actually, don't answer that. I don't really want to know."

"How often have we had sex?" Brennan asked directly.

"Uh, off and on since the Vegas case."

"When was the last time?" Brennan asked as though she were asking a purely scientific question.

"The night before I went to the army base."

Sweets looked like he was going to have a heart attack. He quickly poured himself a glass of water and chugged it. Brennan on the other hand, pretended not to notice the psychologist's reaction. Instead she simply answered, "That explains several things. Thank you."

"Yeah, no problem," Booth answered with sarcasm.

"Wait, you seriously had a sexual relationship for years and never mentioned it?" Sweets asked as soon as he processed what was being said.

"There was never a need to," he shrugged.

"But you told me that she turned you down for a relationship after you told me about your first case."

"I did," Brennan cut in. "I didn't want to get married."

Sweets eyes bugged out of his head at that point, and he appeared to go into a catatonic state.

After a minute of Sweets' stunned silence Booth spoke up. "Hey, Bones, I think we broke him."

"He's still completely intact though."

"I don't mean it _literally_. Just that he's not acting very Sweets like." Booth began to snap his fingers in front of Sweets' face. Apparently, that brought him back.

"Holy shit." It was the first time either the agent or anthropologist heard him cuss.

"Sweets, you okay?"

"No! You two have been seeing each other and never told me! Do you realize how many hours I spent trying to figure out what went wrong that night outside? I thought I pushed you two too much! And it was over marriage? You could have mentioned that! And you both went off to opposite sides of the world after having sex one last time, and you," he indicated towards Booth, "still brought Hannah back? Why? Does Hannah know about your past? I mean the real one! Not the half one you've been telling everyone for years?"

At this point, Booth couldn't help but smile. Brennan saw him smile and knew the charade was done. She began to grin too.

"What?" Sweets snapped.

"This is why you don't change the information given to you," Brennan informed him. Sweets brow furrowed.

"What?" he repeated more distressed.

"You changed the number of names on my list, we changed the information."

"Excuse me?"

"Booth is referring to when you did not tell me he was alive."

Sweets' jaw fell open. "So, you two never had sex?"

"I didn't say that, did I, Bones?"

"No. And I don't believe I did either."

"You definitely didn't."

"Come on, guys," Sweets complained. "This isn't funny, any more. And you put me through that because of something stupid i did over three years ago? That's totally uncool."

Booth looked down at his watch. "I'd normally disagree with you, Sweets; it is pretty funny. But our time is up and I've got a date with my girlfriend. So will you sign Bones' papers so we can get out of here?"

Sweets pulled out the forms, but stopped before signing them. "So, besides this practical joke on me, is there any problems I should know about?"

"Not from me."

"Nor me."

Sweets scribbled his signature. Booth smiled as Sweets finished.

"Great. Ready for our date?" he asked his partner.

"Diner?"

"That's what we decided last night," Booth reminded her as they stood up. He held her coat as she put it on.

"Was that before or after we made love?"

Sweets' head snapped up, again. "Seriously, that stopped being funny."

"I wasn't trying to be humorous," Brennan informed him.

"It was after, Bones," he told her as they walked out the door. Before he shut it on the once again confused psychologist, he stuck his head back into the room. "We'd appreciated it if you didn't mention that last part in any reports. See you Monday, Sweets."

Sweets just sat there for a moment in complete and utter shock as the two partner began to walk towards the diner. They had been gone about two minutes when he realized that they weren't joking anymore. He picked up the phone and dialed a number.

"Hey, Angela, did something happen in New Mexico I should know about?"


End file.
